


No kēlā me kēia ola i laweʻia, hāʻawiʻia kekahi (or For Every Life Taken, Another Is Given)

by Phantom Sparrow (spARROWsENDER)



Category: Hawaii Five-0 (2010)
Genre: Character Death, Friendship, Gen, Hawaii Five-0, Hints of McDanno, Hurt Danny "Danno" Williams, Murder, Protective Steve McGarrett, Worried Steve McGarrett, carguments, mcdanno
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-12-30
Updated: 2018-01-21
Packaged: 2019-02-24 04:53:48
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 3
Words: 23,362
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13206393
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/spARROWsENDER/pseuds/Phantom%20Sparrow
Summary: When a seemingly casual case takes a deadly turn for one of their own, the Five-0 taskforce has to face and adapt to their team being down a member. Steve is suddenly confronted to a big gap in his life, and it pushes him to treat the case like a personal vendetta, dead centred on finding out who committed the crime, and who had the audacity to tear away one of the most important people in his life, if not the most important one.





	1. Chapter 1

This Sunday had truly earned its name. The sun was shining bright, making the waves of the ocean at Steve’s house glister against the windows. The foam looked like a comfy mattress just waiting for someone to get comfy in. And that was exactly what was going to happen, according to Steve’s planning. With nothing but his swimming shorts on, the tall and muscled man walked across the heating sand and into the water, where he instantly felt his temperature drop. He closed his eyes for a moment and simply sat there, neck deep in the ocean water, and enjoyed the small and innocent waves that were crashing against his torso. He opened his eyes after a short while and stretched his muscles. That swim wasn’t going to make itself.  
After his swim in the ocean, Steve came back to his house, where he wasn’t even surprised to find Danny standing on the beach with a towel in his hand. Steve grinned as Danny turned his look away when he surfaced out of the ocean, with his body wet and muscles completely swollen due to the recent exercise.  
“Hey Danno. What’s up?”  
Danny pouted his lips and faked a smile through them, so Steve knew that Danny was bothered. Yes, that was the word; bothered. Steve didn’t have enough information right now to dare use another one.  
“What is up, Steven, is that you should consider a waterproof phone. Where have you been in the last half hour?”  
“I was swimming, Detective. Why are you so on edge?”  
“I— I am not on edge, okay? I am pissed. I am very pissed because I was going to spend the day with my daughter, okay? We were almost at the fair, too, but then my phone rings. And guess what? It’s the Governor, breathing fire down my neck because your dumb ass isn’t picking up his phone. Do you know what it is like, having to hang up the phone and explain to my little girl why we aren’t going to the fair she’s been looking forward to all week?”  
Inside, Steve felt bad. He loved Grace, with all of his soul, and just imagining her face when Danno had to tell her they weren’t going split his heart in half. But, on the outside, Steve was rigged to say something back to his partner. He didn’t know why, but after all these years, it had become some kind of automatic response.  
“Look, Danny, I’m sorry. But it’s Sunday, I have a routine to follow and I can’t have my phone on me all the time.”  
“Yeah yeah. Save it. Just, get dressed, I’ll be in the car. And hurry up.”  
He threw the towel at Steve and walked away. Steve was a little knocked back by the bluntness of Danny’s actions, but figured it would be a bad idea to keep Danny (or the Governor, for that matter) waiting and went inside to pull on some cargo pants and a T-shirt. He put his phone in his pocket, attached his badge and gun to his belt and then left the house. The black Camaro was waiting on his drive-in, with Danny sitting shotgun, staring right in front of him. Steve opened the door to the driver’s seat, ignited the ignition and backed the car out of the driveway without saying a word to Danny.

~~~

While they were on the road on their way to HQ, the storm inside Danny was brewing, and Steve felt it. When they had barely left the highway, Steve couldn’t handle it anymore. He exhaled and spoke:  
“Okay, let’s hear it. I know you’re dying to give me your opinion, so let’s hear it, come on.”  
That did the trick alright. Danny’s face turned red as he shifted in his seat and faced Steve.  
“What are you talking about, Steve? I was going to have a great day with my daughter, and now I can’t have that. I have a right to be pissed.”  
“I am not disagreeing with you, Danny, I’m just saying that it’s not my fault I can’t be with my phone all the time.”  
“And why is that? I thought the only reason you were on this dirt rock is so that you could pick up that phone and throw yourself head first into a situation where you’re being shot at.”  
“Look Danny, I get that you’re pissed, and I’m sorry you didn’t get to spend the day wit Gracie, but I can’t help it that on the rare occasions that I can’t pick up the phone, they dial the second-in-command, which is you.”  
Danny laughed when Steve said ‘rare’.  
“Rare occasions? I thought you always picked up your phone. As a matter of fact, I am surprised you didn’t already have some kind of waterproof casing in which you carried around your phone.”  
“I can’t prepare for everything, Danny.”  
“Oh, wow. Can I get that in writing? I thought you Super-SEALS were supposed to be prepared for everything?”  
“You’re trailing off, Danny.”  
“Doesn’t change the fact that I could be at the fair with my daughter right now.”  
Steve nodded, but then frowned.  
“Wait, you were going to a fair?”  
“Yes, yes we were. I’ve been saying it ever since I got to your house.”  
“Grace got you to agree to go to a fair?”  
“Yes.”  
“How? I thought you didn’t like things that made people happy.”  
The cargument was turning into a teasing conversation. It wasn’t the first time either.  
“Unlike what your distorted mind thinks, I actually like going to a fair. You know why? Because it makes my daughter happy. And there’s nothing else in the world I want.”  
“You’re such a sap.”  
“Shut up.”  
And with those two words, the cargument was officially over. Steve was smiling like he always was, secretly happy that they had made another cargument for the books, but also because he felt he’d come out victorious on this one. Usually, they ended up in a tie (pun intended), but with this one, it seemed Danny gave up halfway at the thought of his daughter smiling while playing those stupid fair games that were rigged anyways.  
Steve pulled up in the parking space shortly after and they made their way to HQ. Kono, Chin, Grover and Jerry were already there.  
“Okay, so what is this thing about that makes it so urgent?”  
Before Steve could add anything else, his teammates parted and revealed the Governor himself, standing in front of the smart table, in a particularly fancy suit. Steve stopped in his tracks, and Danny almost bumped into him at the sudden stop of movement.  
“Governor? What are you doing here, sir?”  
Steve sloppily added the ‘sir’ after he had briefly paused, still surprised to find the Governor himself standing in his office.  
“I require your services, Commander.”  
“Very well. Let’s go to my office.”  
“No, Commander. I learned my lesson last time I tried to withhold information from you and your team. I will brief you all here.”  
Steve nodded as he and his partner joined the group around the smart table. They heard the door behind them open and were surprised to see Max walking into the office. He hurried to the table with a small jog and apologised.  
“My apologies, Governor. There was a problem with traffic that dramatically enlarged the estimated time I had calculated to come here.”  
The Governor nodded at the ME, and then tapped on the screen to make a picture appear. It was a young woman, mid-twenties brown hair, blue eyes, slightly tanned. She was smiling and holding a cocktail at a bar.  
“This is Akela Hokulani. She was found an hour ago, in a lifeboat of the ‘Nani Manu’, a yacht that had been rented for her wedding.”  
The Governor seemed clearly disturbed by the news he was bringing. Steve, who was already aware that his superior wasn’t used to giving briefings in the classical way officers of the law usually did, asked for the missing pieces of the puzzle himself:  
“Okay, sir, but why bring this to us personally? Why not let HPD call this in and let the case work up the ranks like any other?”  
“Because, Commander McGarrett. Akela is… Was. My goddaughter.”  
The revelation wove over the Five-0 team. Chin and Kono lowered their heads, whereas Jerry’s eyes went in the direction of the Commander. Max, Grover, Danny and Steve all maintained eye-contact with the Governor.  
“Our condolences, sir.”  
Steve said on behalf of the team, after having given them a second to process the information. When the Governor looked back up, his lip was slightly trembling, but he seemed determined not to let a single tear drop.  
“You understand, Commander, that this case is very personal for me. Which is why I am suspending any other cases you might be working on and relieving you of all other tasks. I need my best people, your people, to find out who did this, and bring them to justice. Do you understand?”  
“Absolutely, sir. We’ll get on it immediately.”  
“Good. I’ve arranged for the crime scene to remain untouched until you get there. Your team will be the only one with access, and the only ones allowed to give access to anyone else. I’ve managed to keep things under the radar for now, neither the press or the public are aware of anything. I understand that is how you prefer to handle cases of high-ranking murders.”  
His voice trembled and shifted at the last word.  
“It is, sir. Thank you, sir. We will find who did this and bring them in front of you.”  
“You better.”  
Said the man. He walked away from the table and left the office without another word. It was quiet for a moment, all of Five-0’s team members taking it in. Steve gave them a second before getting everyone’s attention.  
“Alright people, you heard him. Let’s get going. Max, you’re coming with us. Jerry, get ready to receive pictures and evidence data. I need you all to be on your absolute best for this one, we can’t let the Governor down.”  
Everyone nodded with confidence as the majority of HPD’s elite moved out to their vehicles while Jerry stayed back at HQ and prepared the system for any programs he’d have to run at double capacity.

~~~

When they arrived at the crime scene, the Five-0 members each took up an individual task without consulting their teammates like it was the most normal thing in the world. Kono met with the officer the Governor had left in charge of the crime scene to get a full report on what was currently known. Chin started wandering around the crime scene, looking for clues that HPD might have missed when they first swept the area (after getting consent from Steve, of course) or talk to witnesses, bystanders, or people that might give him an idea of the place. Max went ahead to examine the body, while Grover, Danny and Steve stood by their cars and looked around to get familiar with the crime scene.  
The boat had been docked at a private pier, that was only accessible through a gate which was remote controller from a small building not far from the pier itself, where all the file cabinets, security tapes and other important administrative things were kept. There were a few, smaller boats on other piers, but none seemed particularly interesting to any of the team members. Although the wooden piers were in surprisingly excellent state, the rest of the private pier-section seemed rather abandoned and rusty. It was hard to believe that the wedding would be held at this particular location. Kono thanked the officer for his briefing and came back to her boss to give them a report.  
“Okay, so. Like the Governor said, our vic’s name was Akela Hokulani, 26. She was found in the lifeboat an hour and thirty minutes ago, by the Captain of the yacht. His name is Henry Reeles.”  
“Can we talk to him?”  
Danny asked. Kono nodded.  
“Yes. HPD asked him to remain on scene so we could get a statement from him when we got here. He’s waiting on the upper deck.”  
She guided them towards the pier with her hand. She kept talking while they were walking on the wooden boards, next to the relatively big yacht, but from far the biggest that could be found on the Hawaiian coast.  
“According to Mr. Reeles, he was doing a routine check on the yacht before heading out to the location of the wedding when he noticed that the lifeboat wasn’t above deck. He looked down the railing and saw the body.”  
They went up the plank that led them onto the white floater. They went up the stairs to go to the upper deck, and saw that the bright orange lifeboat had been pulled up above deck again so that the ME could do his job. Thanks to some boxes and crates that had been put under the lifeboat to give it a steady surface for the man to do his job on, the crime scene had also perfectly been preserved. Grover, Danny and Steve all walked towards Max as Kono finished her briefing. When she finished, Steve nodded thankfully and turned to Max, who was standing rather high up in the boat.  
“Talk to me Max. What do we have?”  
Max stood up from the body and briefly pushed up his glasses before inviting the Commander and his team up the crates to have a better look. Steve enthusiastically jumped up the crates, while Grover climbed and joined him more calmly. Danny climbed up a few crates as well, but didn’t go any higher after his head got above the sides of the lifeboat and gave him a (rather low) perspective of what could be found in the rubber boat.  
Akela was lying on her back, eyes and mouth open. Her cold, blue eyes were staring aimlessly into the side of the boat. Her hands were a bit further away from her body, and her legs slightly parted. She was wearing tongs, a jean short and a yellow top with spaghetti straps.  
“I have established that the COD was strangulation, as it is quite obvious from the bruising around her neck. The size and shape of the bruising is quite troubling however, I cannot seem to find any distinguishing patterns indicating where exactly she was grabbed.”  
He bent down again and delicately moved the head around. As he showed the Five-0 members, the bruise on her neck seemed to go all around her neck, not really showing a beginning or an end to the blueish colour that was now also starting to appear on her lips.  
“Is it possible she could have been strangled by something that wrapped all around her neck?”  
“I’m afraid not, Commander. I have examined the bruising closely and can assure you that there was no object used to murder Miss Hokulani. The bruising was caused by human hands. Furthermore, I have also found a fracture on the back of her head, inflicted pre-mortem, but it was not the cause of death.”  
“Okay. Any idea when she was killed?”  
“I situate TOD somewhere between nine and eleven today. I will, of course, have more information to give you once I’ve done the autopsy back at the lab.”  
“Okay, thanks Max. Anything else you can tell me?”  
“Well, Commander, now that you ask, I actually do have a theory.”  
“Okay, let’s hear it.”  
Danny could tell by Grover’s rolling eyeballs screaming ‘oh God here we go again’ that he was not in the mood for Max’ intricate thinking. Steve however, crossed his arms over his chest and opened his legs a bit wider, as he usually did when he was curious to hear what the other had to say, but secretly in a cocky, ‘can’t wait to prove you wrong’ kind of way. Max carried on, with his unscathed, unbothered look.  
“I have reason to believe that the victim was not killed in this very lifeboat. Notice the complete absence of signs of struggle. I find it highly unlikely that she would have been killed here, and then dropped down to sea level.”  
“You think she could have been killed somewhere else?”  
“Looking at the facts, I believe it is entirely possible.”  
Grover wasn’t happy to learn this, and let it be known to the company of people by grunting before speaking.  
“Great. Are you telling me that this lifeboat could just be our secondary crime scene, and that our primary crime scene could be anywhere on Hawaii?”  
“I wouldn’t go quite as ambitious as the entire island, Captain. But I can most certainly state that the primary crime scene isn’t too far from here, considering the lack of marks indicating the body was moved.”  
“Not too far isn’t gonna cut it, Doc. Be more specific.”  
“My best guess would be to say that she was killed somewhere on this yacht, Captain. But I would need indications and clues as to find out exactly where.”  
Steve nodded and put a hand on Grover’s shoulder.  
“How about you go look for our primary crime scene, Lou. Like Max said, it can’t be too far. Sweep the yacht and see if you can find anything. Max, stay near the radios. If Lou calls in, I need you to hear it and stand by to go to the primary crime scene, got it?”  
“Absolutely, Commander.”  
Steve got down from the crates, along with Grover, and joined Danny on the deck. As Grover started going over the deck and Max cleaned up after examining the body, Steve turned to Danny.  
“Hey, what are you thinking about? You looking for someone?”  
He asked when Danny looked left and right from them, sweeping the deck with his eyes.  
“Yeah, where is that Captain Kono mentioned?”  
“Who, Reeles?”  
“Yeah. I’d like to talk to him.”  
Steve got Kono’s attention away from one of the guys who was taking pictures of the body.  
“Hey, Kono, where is the Captain you mentioned earlier?”  
“Oh, yeah, he’s in the cabin somewhere.”  
She pointed towards the cabin before directing her attention back to the assistant and explained how she would like the pictures to be taken and of what specific objects. Steve turned back to his partner.  
“Let’s go.”  
Danny was going to protest that he was perfectly capable of interrogating a witness alone, but couldn’t get a single word out before Steve was already headed for the cabin with is long legs. He cursed the long body parts under his breath and caught up with a small jog. They went inside the cabin, and found a police officer sitting with a man dressed in a rather messy uniform. He was thin, had blue eyes and some light brown hair was sticking out from under his hat. His skin was pale.  
“Captain Reeles?”  
Steve asked.  
“Yes, that’s me.”  
The man said.  
“Hi, I’m Lieutenant Commander Steve McGarrett, this is my partner Danny Williams, Five-0. We’d like to ask you a few questions.”  
The Captain shifted his wait and looked away for a moment before facing Steve completely and putting on a short smile for him.  
“Of course. How can I help?”  
“We heard you were the one who found the body. Could you tell us around what time that was?”  
“I don’t really know, it was somewhere around, uh, two, maybe two thirty?”  
“Did you notice anything different on your boat, something misplaced, something that was missing?”  
Reeles shrugged. He put on an unknowing, innocent face.  
“No, nothing that I can remember.”  
“Okay. Can you tell us how exactly you discovered the body?”  
“Well I was just, uh, doing my rounds, you know, making sure the knots were done well. I’ve recently employed a new guy and I want to make sure he does, uh, good work. And when I was above deck, I noticed the lifeboat wasn’t where it was supposed to be. It was pushed over the railing and let down. So I looked over the railing, thinking that maybe the wind had pushed it over and somehow let the mechanism malfunction or something, but instead I see that woman in there. So, I pull the boat back up, and I can’t get a pulse. So I called HPD, and here you are.”  
“Is there anything else you can tell us? Anything at all?”  
“Sorry, no. That’s all I can give you.”  
“Okay, thanks, Captain.”  
“Can I go now?”  
“Yes. But we need you to stay available. And could you also please drop by HPD to make a statement?”  
“Sure.”  
“Great, thanks.”  
Steve left the cabin with a slightly morose Danny. Once they left it, Steve turned around and saw his partner’s unhappy look. So help him God, he was pouting again.  
“What’s with the face, Danny?”  
“First of all, I would like to point out that talking to the Captain was my idea, and I would have been perfectly capable of doing that myself, thank you very much.  
“Come on, Danny, we’re just doing our jobs.”  
“Yes, yes you are. But when it’ll come down to less talking to your colleagues’ witness and more about filling in paper work, you won’t be picking up your phone again.”  
Steve shrugged Danny’s sharp comment off and looked him in the eyes.  
“But that’s not what the look is about, right? You don’t believe this guy?”  
Danny sighed as he was a little annoyed at how Steve completely dismissed the mere mention of paperwork. He sensed he was going to be doing a lot of paperwork in his own again when this case was done.  
“I don’t, actually no. And if you’d let me talk to the witness, I might’ve been able to crack him. But now you’ve dismissed him and I can’t go back in there, saying ‘oh hey, I didn’t get to open my mouth earlier because my animalistic partner was so very eager to steal you away, but I think you’re lying’.”  
Steve rolled his eyes.  
“Come on Danny. Just because I ‘stole’ your witness, doesn’t mean that he’s lying. And since when is he your witness? We’re working on this case together, remember?”  
It was Danny’s turn to roll his eyes. Leave it to Commander Steve McGarrett to turn a situation of Danny scolding Steve into Steve scolding Danny in less than two seconds. But since this was a case they had been put on by the Governor himself, he gritted his teeth and decided to remain professional, instead of bursting into another one of his rants. He dismissed Steve’s question and instead focused on the reasons why his gut was telling him that Reeles was lying:  
“Don’t you think he’s a little fidgety? He shifted his wait, looked away, said ‘uh’ at least three times…”  
“The guy found a dead body, Danny. That tends to leave a mark.”  
“Yeah, he found a dead body. He did. An hour ago. You think he would’ve calmed down by the time we got here, don’t you?”  
“I don’t know, Danny, some people are more susceptible to these kinds of things than others. Maybe he’s just stressed.”  
“Seriously Steve? Stressed? No, I’m telling you: there’s something about this guy, and I don’t like it.”  
“You’re just imagining things. You’re probably just jealous because I interrogated the guy and didn’t let you have any fun.”  
“Excuse me? I’m jealous?”  
Before they could begin their married couple bickering, Chin walked onto the deck and was greeted with the thankful look in the eyes of all the people on the upper deck, including Max and Kono. He walked towards the two partners and interrupted them without hesitation.  
“There was no sign of a forced entry at the gate. I tried to recover the security tapes from the cameras, but don’t get your hopes up: the disk was practically fried. I asked someone to send it to the lab and to Jerry, in case they manage to recover something. Someone sure did a decent job at covering up their tracks.”  
Steve diverted his look from Danny to look at Chin. The native was looking at him with a false innocent face, pretending he had no idea he just interrupted a new argument between Steve and Danny which, to be honest, they were both looking forward to. Everyone else on the deck was thankful however, when Steve and Danny both inhaled and exhaled, calming themselves down, and focused their attention back on the case.  
“Okay, so clearly this guy knew how to get in here. Is it possible he could work here, or be renting a boat or something?”  
Steve sighed when he heard Danny’s suggestion. He hated it when Danny was right when he was in the mood for arguing, and telling Danny he was onto something when all he wanted to do was begin their eternal ‘who can give the best counterargument’ contest wasn’t exactly his favourite thing in the world. But he thought of the Governor and how his lack of professionalism, in this particular case, might cost him greatly, so he sighed and gave in.  
“Danny’s right. Get a hold of the owner of this place and get a list of all the people that work here or could have access to this yacht.”  
Chin nodded and Steve didn’t even need to look at Danny’s face to know that there was a smug smile all over his damned lips. He secretly cursed at Chin, who was the only one of the Five-0 taskforce who was capable of cutting off their bickering. He turned back to Danny, who had clearly calmed down. They regained bits of their professionalism and Steve started thinking out loud:  
“Okay, we have a lot of unanswered questions right now: why was Akela here, hours before her wedding? Was she lured here? How exactly was she killed? And why? We need to figure this out, Danny. The Governor is counting on us.”  
Danny wordlessly agreed by nodding his head. He began theorising while Kono was listening in the distance:  
“Well, the Governor did say that she and her fiancé wanted to get married on the water, so they hired a boat to do exactly that.”  
“It’s a yacht, Danny.”  
Having flashbacks from when he and Steve were lost at see in a dingy as Steve relentlessly specified, Danny’s eyes darkened and glared lightning at Steve. Steve kept quiet and motioned for the blonde to continue.  
“As I was saying, they hired a yacht to get married on. Maybe Akela was getting worried about something that might go wrong on the yacht while they were on the water, so she came by to check on some things herself.”  
“That doesn’t make any sense Danny. Akela doesn’t look like she knows a lot about boats or yachts, and even if she did, she would’ve asked Reeles about it, wouldn’t she? It was just a few hours before her wedding, she didn’t have time to come down here by herself, she needed to get ready to get married.”  
“Trust me Steve, people will run across the street in their half-closed wedding gown if they hear that the best day of their lives might get ruined because of some small detail. I’ve been there.”  
“If she came here to check up on things, how did she get in? She hired the yacht, but she couldn’t have had access to it, right? Someone would’ve needed to let her in here. Who did that?”  
“Probably her killer. Like I said: he might work here, or at least be very familiar with the layout of this place.”  
Danny rubbed his forehead, trying to figure out the mystery that had been placed in front of them. He thought about something else and threw it in the group.  
“What about the family? Have they been notified yet?”  
Kono joined in on the conversation to answer the question:  
“Her fiancé has been pulled out of a meeting about fifteen minutes ago. I sent an escort to drive him to HQ, just to be safe. He has agreed to wait for interrogation there while we sort things out here.”  
“Okay, what about her parents, siblings?”  
“I called Jerry about that a couple of minutes ago and here’s what I got: her father lives by himself in an apartment not far from Oahu, a couple of miles out of the city. Her mother is in a psych ward, she has schizophrenia and has been mostly unresponsive for the past months.”  
“Yikes. Any brothers or sisters?”  
“None according to Jerry. Although he did mention that her mother had a miscarriage four years after Akela was born. Psychiatrists think that that’s when the symptoms of schizophrenia started popping up and getting worse. Akela was mostly raised by her father. He’s been summoned at the ME to identify the body once the autopsy has been done.”  
“That was fast. Who did that?”  
“The Governor did.”  
Surprise struck both men. They had almost forgotten that the Governor must’ve been good friends with Akela’s father if he were her godfather. They couldn’t help but wonder how those two men, with very different backgrounds, could’ve come together. Kono saw the looks on their faces and shrugged.  
“I thought it was a little weird too, to have the Governor be friends with someone with such a different life and background. I guess miracles never cease, do they?”  
Danny and Steve barely had the time to shake off their surprise when Grover’s voice beamed from the radio:  
“Hey Max, get over here. I think I got something.”  
Max, who, until then, had supervised the moving of the body rather strictly, jumped up and went up to the radio. He grabbed it and pushed in the button.  
“This is Max, Captain. Where are you?”  
“Lower deck, in the bedroom. It’s the door at the far end of the boat, you can’t miss it.”  
Max didn’t answer and almost ran down the stairs while putting on a new pair of latex gloves. Steve smirked at Max’ enthusiasm. He gave Danny a look.  
“Come on Danno, let’s go.”  
Danny simply sighed, and followed his superior. When they got to the place Lou had described, Max was already on all fours on the ground, collecting a sample from something on the floor. When he stood up and proudly showed the members a sample of blood he’d collected.  
“Gentlemen, I am pleased to announce you that the Captain found our primary crime scene.”  
Grover grabbed the radio near his shoulder and started giving orders through it, telling people to extend the crime scene to the lower deck. Max showed them around the room. It was a pretty nicely-decorated bedroom, that was clearly the intended place for the honeymoon to start. On the floor, a small puddle of blood could be seen, right next to the corner of the bed. The covers near the corner were slightly disrupted.  
“This is where the struggle began. I suspect the perpetrator must have tried to take our victim by surprise and knocked her down somehow, and our victim must’ve hit the corner. It might have knocked her out cold, or just dazed her enough for the perpetrator to take dominance, and choke her to death.”  
At the rather particular phrasing of the ME, Steve thought of something else.  
“Max, can you tell if there was sexual offense on her body?”  
“Right now, no, Commander, I cannot. But I will once I’ve finished the autopsy.”  
“Okay. Finish up here, and keep us posted if you find anything, okay? Lou, you make sure the guys bag every single thing in this bedroom, the covers and the pillows too. If this is where Akela was killed, we’re going to need every single inch of this place combed twice.”  
Grover nodded.  
“You got it.”  
“Great. Danny and I are going back to HQ to interrogate Akela’s fiancé.”  
Obtaining no complaints from the shorter man, Steve walked out the bedroom and back towards the car. They didn’t come across Kono on their way out, but Steve knew she would assist Lou and Max to help finish up on the crime scene. They climbed into the car and Steve set course for the Five-0 headquarters. Danny didn’t say a word during the trip, but for once, Steve didn’t mind.

~~~

When they got back at HQ, they found Duke standing next to the fiancé. Steve and Danny shook the cop’s hand and briefly thanked him, before moving on to the man in pain and shook his hand as well and introduce themselves before guiding him to Steve’s office. While Danny took place on the corner of Steve’s desk (which only half-pleased the man, since it had been waxed barely a week ago), Steve sat down in his chair and opened the conversation.  
“Mr. Keliki, we would like to offer you our most sincere condolences. Please know that my team is doing everything they can to find who murdered your fiancé.”  
After earning a single sob rattle the man’s shoulders, he finally looked up and tried to harden himself under the crushing pain he was facing. The man had a tan, dark eyes and dark hair. The shape of his face reminded the Five-0 men a little of Adam. He tried to smile, but it was barely believable with his eyes completely flushed red.  
“Please, call me Makena. Just tell me how I can help you, and I’ll do it. I’ll do anything.”  
“Thank you, Makena. For now, we just want to ask you some questions, is that okay with you?”  
Makena nodded and wiped under his eye. The dried and burning sensation of tears that rolled down on his cheek was bothering him, and neither Steve or Danny failed to notice that.  
“Mr. Keliki. We understand that you’re having a hard time right now, and Akela is probably the last thing you want to be reminded of, but can you tell us if you noticed anything out of the ordinary with your fiancé lately? Did she seem stressed, a little paranoid, did she take unnecessary precautions?”  
“No, I, uh… No, not that I can think of.”  
He sniffed his nose, which was still leaking a little from when the man had clearly cried.  
“Okay. Uh, we don’t know exactly how much you have been told about how we found your fiancé, Mr. Keliki, but we were wondering if you knew anything about Akela going to the Nani Manu to check on things?”  
“What? No, she wasn’t supposed to be anywhere near the yacht that morning. She was supposed to be with her friends, they said they were going to have a manicure to calm her down and kill the nerves before…”  
His voice died before he could finish the sentence, although both Steve and Danny needed no further words to know what he was going to say.  
“Thank you, Mr. Keliki. Could you provide us with a list of names of the friends she was supposed to meet up with? We’ll go check with them if she made it to the salon or if something could’ve happened before.”  
Makena nodded in silence. Danny stood up from the desk.  
“Thank you for coming, Mr. Keliki. We will call you and let you know if we make any progress in the case, okay? For now, it would be better for you to take the rest of the day off and go home, be with your family. Alright?”  
Once more, Makena nodded and stood up. He was guided to the door by Danny. When he closed the door and turned away from the man who was walking towards the exit, he saw Steve’s face and immediately knew he was not pleased.  
“What?”  
“What the Hell was that for, Danny? I still had some questions I wanted to ask him.”  
“What were you going to ask him, Steve? Can’t you see the man’s in pain? He doesn’t need this right now.”  
“We need to solve this case, Danny. We needed to ask him for an alibi, determine if the guy had motive—”  
He was interrupted by Danny who started waving his hands around in front of him as he always did.  
“Oh, so the guy’s a suspect now, too? Didn’t you see him, Steve, that man was broken. Kaput. He is very clearly crushed.”  
“What, the crocodile tears? Anyone can pull those, Danny. And since when do you defend people who are going to get married?”  
“That is not the point, okay? The point here, is that this man just lost the woman he was going to marry, and he is now completely and utterly destroyed by that.”  
Steve pulled a smug smile on his face.  
“No, I know what this is. This is revenge because I stopped you from interrogating that suspect from earlier, am I right? You’re pissed you didn’t get to do what you wanted, so now you’re taking revenge.”  
“What? No, Steve, that is not what this is. This is not some childish revenge on you, okay? This is me, listening to my gut, and my gut is telling me that Makena Keliki did not kill his fiancé.”  
“And how would you prove that?”  
“Wha— I just told you, you stubborn animal. I’m listening to my gut. That, and Kono said he was pulled out of a meeting, right?”  
“Yeah, half an hour ago. He could easily have caught up with her before, kill her on the yacht and then gone to the meeting like nothing happened. It’s called forging an alibi, Danny.”  
“I know what that means, Steve. But why would he do that, huh? Why would he kill the woman he hadn’t even married yet?”  
“I don’t know, maybe he found something out he didn’t like. Besides, who still goes to meetings on their wedding day?”  
“I don’t know, Steve, maybe it was a pressing matter that couldn’t wait, maybe it was something he wanted to finish before going on his honeymoon?”  
Steve got up from his chair and walked to the smart table while answering. Jerry stepped out of his office when he saw the movement and joined them at the smart table with a tablet in his hands.  
“Well, that’s what we’re going to figure out right now. Jerry?”  
Jerri nodded and swiped the data that was on his tablet upwards, to transfer it onto the main hub at their work space. Several pictures showed up on the screens: some of Makena’s ID and other administrative forms, others from magazine covers or other shoots.  
“Makena Keliki, 30 years old, owner of Coastal Hawaii. It’s a real estate company that focuses on buying or selling land or properties on the shore, mainly to either build or convert into hotels. It belonged to Seline Keliki, the mother of Makena and his sister. She died 6 months ago because of lung cancer. Makena inherited it all and has been the head of the company ever since.”  
A logo of the company appeared. It was not very original, the name in blue letters on a white background, the C transformed into a wave.  
“Makena has a sister?”  
Danny asked. Jerry nodded and pulled up another photo.  
“Yes, her name is Kaliko. She’s been working in the company ever since she got her degree in business management, and according to the reports and feedback, it’s very important to her. She was present in practically every single meeting, presentation or other important appointment. Unlike her brother, she was very invested in her company.”  
“Makena didn’t take his business seriously?”  
“I wouldn’t go as far as to say that, but compared to his sister, he was definitely not as hard-working as her. He missed a couple of meetings here and there, sometimes cancelled appointments in the last minute or rescheduled them.”  
Danny turned to Steve, hoping that this time that Neanderthal would listen to him.  
“See, Steve. This, right here, is what I’d call proof that Makena didn’t do it. He didn’t care about the company. Why would he kill someone over it?”  
“Actually that may just be evidence that he did do it. Why would he suddenly bother to go to a meeting for a company he doesn’t care about, huh? So he could have an alibi, people to vouch for him.”  
“And what if you’re wrong, huh, ever thought about that? What if Akela’s murder had nothing to do with the company?”  
“I don’t know, Danny, maybe there’s another story, something we can’t find in a paper trail. Doesn’t mean he’s not guilty. In my experience, when someone is murdered, it’s almost always someone from the family, and in the case of couples, it’s always the husband.”  
“Oh, so all of the sudden you’re an expert on marriage and couples, are you?”  
“What, you have a better idea?”  
“Yes, as a matter of fact I do. I think the company has nothing to do with this. In my opinion, the key to knowing why Akela was killed is on that yacht.”  
Steve shrugged. Danny rolled his eyes, not even surprised. Why did he even think this would be enough to convince that rock-headed partner of his?  
Kono walked in, and Steve immediately focused his attention on her.  
“Hey Kono, what did you find?”  
“Nothing, boss. I checked with every person the owner of the docks told us had access to the yacht at the TOD for motive, but none of them are connected to Akela or the Kelikis, and all of them have a rock-solid alibi. There’s no lead to be found in that direction.”  
Chin walked in as she finished her report.  
“Okay. Chin, give me some good news, man.”  
Chin put the tablet he was carrying with him on the smart table, but didn’t pull up anything on the screen.  
“Sorry brah. Hard drive was too damaged to get anything from it. The cameras were disabled, so that’s a dead end too. That’s all I got.”  
“Damn.”  
Steve cursed. His phone rang. He looked at it and a smirk appeared on his face.  
“That’s Lou. He says Max just finished the autopsy. Let’s go, Danny. Jerry, you keep digging, see if you can find something else to go on. Chin, Kono, you go and talk to the family, the relatives and friends. Get me alibis from everyone. If you find a lead, you let me know, got it?”  
“Got it boss.”  
Jerry and Chin simply nodded as Steve walked for the exit, followed by his short-legged partner.

~~~

They walked in the ME’s office and found Max standing behind the slab on which Akela was put. He looked up and greeted them with a small smile.  
“Gentlemen, how good of you to come.”  
“Lou said you found something, Max. What is it?”  
“Well, I took a closer look at the bruising of the neck, and after scanning them and having done some puzzling on the 3D replica, I found out that the bruises were caused by different people, at different times.”  
He moved to his monitor, where the picture of the bruising had been stretched out and put through some filters.  
“As you can see, this bruising right here, on the back of her neck, trails further down to her back and leans more towards the ochre colour, indicating this bruise is older than the other one. It was caused within twenty-four hours of her death, also made by larger hands that I suspect to be male. Moving on to the other bruise, on the front side of her neck, it is clear that this bruise was caused due to the asphyxiation, considering its deeper blue colour. It was also caused by smaller hands, but I remain uncertain when it comes to identifying the gender.”  
“Why is that?”  
“Despite the small proportions of the hands, the amount of force that was put around the victim’s neck was strong enough to put permanent deformation on the body. In my experience, there are not many women capable of such strength, which is why I remain doubtful about our perpetrator’s gender. Furthermore, I have established a more specific TOD, situated somewhere around ten this morning.”  
“Okay. Were there any signs of sexual abuse?”  
“The rape-kit came back negative, Commander. However, it was clear that this woman had had a sexual interaction within twenty-four hours of her murder. She was also not using protection.”  
It took a moment for Steve and Danny to understand what Max was saying. Danny was the first to make the connection:  
“Max, are saying that Akela was pregnant?”  
Max looked down and guilty for a second before nodding in approval.  
“I’m afraid so, Detective.”  
Steve and Danny’s lips reacted in synch. They pinched together and formed an unhappy curve downwards.  
“So not only was Akela killed a few hours before she got married, she was killed while carrying a child.”  
Steve stated.  
“Is it possible to know who the father was?”  
“Unfortunately, Akela was barely a week pregnant, Commander. Establishing who the father is would be hard, considering there is practically no foetus to test anything.”  
“We’ll have to ask Makena if he knew about this, and if it was their intention to get pregnant.”  
Steve said. Danny stopped him.  
“Wow, Steve, hold on a minute. Don’t you think you’re going a little hard on the guy? Barely a few hours ago we dropped the bomb on him that his fiancé was murdered, now you want to tell him that his kid is dead too? Give him a break.”  
“He has a right to know, Danny.”  
“Yes, Steve, of course he does. But maybe wait before you drop that information on him, would you?”  
Steve looked away for a brief moment before returning his gaze to Danny. He nodded.  
“Okay. But if we come across a lead that suggests this baby isn’t Makena’s, we have to consider this might be a crime of passion.”  
“Fine, Steve, whatever makes you feel all good and superior about this. Where are you going?”  
Danny asked as he saw his partner walk out of the lab with his phone in his hand.  
“I’m going to the car, Danny. Kono and Chin finished their background check on everyone and are waiting to report in. In the meantime, we’re going to Makena’s place.”  
“What? Why? You just said—”  
“I know what I said, Danny. We are not going to tell him his child died, not yet anyways. I want to go back there to find out what I can about his company.”  
“Why, we just saw him today. Why go back there so quickly?”  
“Because, Danny, unlike your gut, my gut is telling me that the key to this case is with that company.”  
“Okay, so the thing that I just said, not even an hour ago, about the key being the yacht, you’re just going to completely dismiss that?”  
“I’m not dismissing it, Danny. It’s just not a lead worth investigating.”  
Danny put his hands in his pockets and looked away. He grew frustrated with Steve’s behaviour and tendency to ignore him.  
“You coming?”  
“Yes, Steve, I’m coming, but I would still like to go to the yacht.”  
“Why?”  
“I just told you, you Neanderthal! I want to go over the scene again, see if there was something we missed.”  
Steve looked at his phone.  
“Look, I don’t have time to drop you off there and then go to Makena’s place to interrogate him, I have to meet the Governor in an hour. I’ll drop you off at HQ and tell Kono to drop you off.”  
“Seriously, Steve?”  
“Yes, now come on!”  
Steve urged him out of Max’s lab, and Danny followed. Sometimes, he really felt like he hated that man more than he hated Hawaii himself.

~~~

In the car, Steve answered the call from Kono, who was calling to report in.  
“Hey boss. What took you so long?”  
“Sorry Kono, Danny wasn’t in as much of a hurry I was.”  
Danny shot his partner a look, but Steve ignored it. They heard Kono snicker over the phone. When she gained back some composure, she began her report:  
“So, Chin and I did as you asked and went over all family members, friends, anyone who might have a connection to Akela’s murder, we even looked over the guestlist of the people invited at the wedding itself. But as far as we can see, but they all came up with some pretty solid alibis.”  
“Not even on the guestlist? Maybe an angry ex-boyfriend, someone with a record?”  
“No one of major interest, boss. There were some people with a record, but their alibis are pretty strong. Well, almost all of them.”  
“What do you mean? You found something?”  
“Makena and Kaliko are each other’s alibis. They went to another meeting earlier that day, somewhere around nine o’clock.”  
“That’s an hour before Akela was killed. One of them could easily have snuck out and gone to the yacht to kill Akela.”  
Reading Steve’s thoughts, Kono answered Steve:  
“Kaliko is with her brother at his home right now. I’m sending you the address. You want us to go over there?”  
“Actually Kono tell Chin to meet me there, I need you to stand by at HQ and bring Danny to the yacht.”  
“Why?”  
Kono sounded a little disappointed. Steve could imagine that she hadn’t portrayed herself as the driver of the Five-0 taskforce on this case.  
“Danny wants to go back there, see if there’s anything we missed. He’s following his gut.”  
Steve said in a somewhat mocking tone. Kono didn’t answer for a minute, then simply said:  
“Got it boss. I’ll be waiting for Danny and tell Chin to meet you at Keliki’s house.”  
“Oh and tell Grover start working on a timeline with Jerry when he gets there. We still have a lot of blanks between when Akela left her house and when she was found dead on the Nani Manu.”  
“Will do.”  
She hung up. Much to his surprise, Danny wasn’t even giving him a look when Steve looked at his partner. He was just sitting there, thinking. Steve decided to welcome the rare silence from his partner, and simply drove to HQ where he dropped off the blonde without saying another word to him, and then drove on to Makena’s house.

~~~

At 16:23 p.m., Kono pulled up in front of the gate of the docks and waited for it to open. She didn’t drive further, just looked at Danny who was sitting next to her.  
“You sure you don’t want me to come with you?”  
“No, Kono, that won’t be necessary. You probably think that Steve’s right and that I’m barking up the wrong tree, so I’m not going to ask you to do this. Maybe you can just try to find a copy of the security tapes in the office, see if we missed anything.”  
Kono nodded and Danny stepped out of the car. He walked towards the yacht with an assured step. Kono sighed deeply and then stepped out of the car herself, to make her way to the office.  
Danny went on board the now completely abandoned yacht. He was a little surprised to find it completely deserted, figuring there would be at least a guard on the scene, but then again they might be in the office. He started looking around on the upper deck first. He swept the place from front to back, but much to his annoyance, found nothing that pointed him in the direction he wanted to go. He went bellow deck. He started going through the other rooms, to see if maybe there could be something else they missed. He had barely searched one room when a sudden noise from the compartment next to him made him jerk up and put his hand on his gun. He put his ear against the wall and heard a machine buzzing, and figured there might be someone in the machine room. He made his way there and carefully went inside, his gun being the first thing to penetrate the room.  
“Hey? Is someone in there? Identify yourself!”  
He went in and had to take out his torch to see in the very poorly lit room. He went around the corner. He was surprised to find Captain Reeles lying on the ground, seemingly unconscious. Obeying his first instinct, Danny grabbed his phone and speed-dialled Steve. It rang in his ear as he put his gun back in his holster and came closer to Reeles to look for a pulse. As suspected, Reeles was just unconscious, but Danny frowned when he saw that one of his hands had been cuffed to another machine, one that seemed independent from all the other machines on the boat, and covered with a sheet. Danny lifted the sheet, and within seconds, his eyes went wide. He didn’t manage to get all the details, the only thing he saw were the big, red numbers on screen, counting down from ten seconds. Without thinking, Danny got up and ran for the exit. He left the machine room, miraculously still holding on to his phone, and ran up the stairs to the upper deck. He managed to get high enough for his hair to be ruffled by the wind. Then, the yacht exploded.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi all!  
> First of all, Happy New Year! I'm not good at wishing people these kind of holiday wishes, but I hope you do lots of weird stuff and thrive towards your dreams. Or something along those lines...  
> Second, apologies for the confusion about the first chapter supposedly being the entire story, forgot to indicate this was a first part or several. It's fixed now! Please don't bite my nose off...  
> Also, I just want you guys to be aware that I am taking finals right now, and that is going to slow down the writing process a bit. I'll try to write when I can, but understand that publishing the chapters is going to take a while.  
> Alright, enough about that. Enjoy!

At 16:23 p.m., Steve was looking at Makena and Kaliko Keliki, sitting in front of him, holding hands.  
“We’re sorry to bother you like this Makena, but we’ve come across some new information and we had some new questions we would like to ask you.”  
Makena nodded. His sister, a woman with delicate traits, green eyes and dark hair, gently rubbed his back. Steve shot a quick look at Chin, who was standing next to him.  
“Makena. We found some bruising on the back of your fiancé’s neck. Do have any idea if she was being mistreated by someone, maybe a co-worker?”  
Makena’s head shot up, but not in surprise or in agony, more in shame.  
“Oh, God, I… Commander, I… I don’t know how to tell you this, but. That was me.”  
“Excuse me?”  
Steve said as he unwrapped his arms from his torso.  
“It’s not what you think! We…”  
He cleared his throat and looked at his sister before standing up and walking to the kitchen to get a glass of water. Steve followed him there while Chin stayed with Kaliko.  
“What do you mean it’s not what I think? Makena, we found bruising on your fiancé and you tell us that was you, what the Hell am I supposed to think?”  
“It’s not like that, Commander. Akela and I we… Uhm. We… Liked it rough, you know?”  
Steve’s eyebrow shot up. That was not what he expected.  
“You mean…?”  
“Yes. Akela and I liked it pretty rough in the bedroom. But Commander, I love… Loved, Akela, you have to believe me. I would never hurt her.”  
Steve wove his hand in front of him, clearly having heard enough.  
“Okay, Makena, okay. But you’re still going to have to answer some other questions.”  
“Of course, Commander.”  
He went back to the living room when he heard his sister calling:  
“Maki! You okay?”  
“I’m okay, Kaliko. I just, uh. Needed to get a glass of water, my throat is drying up constantly.”  
He sat back down with the glass in his hand. Steve joined Chin.  
“Makena, Kaliko, when was the last time you saw Akela?”  
Chin asked. He saw Makena flinch when he heard the name of his former significant other. Kaliko saw the pain in her brother’s eyes and answered first:  
“I saw her yesterday, somewhere in the afternoon. I had joined her for lunch with her friends, we discussed what was going to happen today.”  
“Wait, you were supposed to meet up with her?”  
“For the manicure, yes. But I had to cancel it last minute when I got a call saying that I had to be at a meeting. It was very important, we were reviewing the budget of a project we’d been working on for some time, I simply couldn’t afford to miss it. I did ask for it to be scheduled early in the morning so that I could still attend the wedding in the afternoon.”  
“Okay, what about you, Makena?”  
Chin pinched his eyes when Makena didn’t answer immediately. He took a deep breath, and finally worked up the courage to speak her name, probably for the first time since she’d died:  
“I last saw Akela this morning. She had gotten up bright and early like she always did and had gone to the beach to catch some morning waves. I kissed her goodbye and told her I’d see her at the wedding.”  
“Akela was a surfer?”  
“Yes, she loved the ocean. Surfing in the morning was a routine for her, she’d go out there almost every day.”  
“Do you know what she was supposed to do after that?”  
“She said she’d planned to meet up with her friends at the salon around ten. I suppose she never made it there.”  
“Do you know if she meant to make any stops in between?”  
“No, I don’t. Akela knew the beach like the back of her hand and it was a pretty long drive towards the salon. I can’t see a possible reason why she’d want to make a stop anywhere, let alone on the yacht.”  
“Okay. That’s all for now. Thank you.”  
Chin seemed satisfied with the information he got. He and Steve walked out the door and stopped when they reached their vehicles.  
“I don’t know Steve, Makena seems pretty torn up. I think he’s telling the truth. He couldn’t have killed Akela. He didn’t have enough reason to do that. And it’s clear that he loved her way too much.”  
“I think you’re right, Chin. But that puts us back to square one. Have all the others checked out?”  
“All their alibis are pretty solid, Steve. I don’t really know what angle I’m supposed to work here.”  
“Maybe Jerry had some luck and found something. You go back to HQ and see if there’s something we can dig up. I’m going to call Lou and tell him to meet me—”  
Steve was cut short when he saw a black, fancy car pull up in the driveway of the Keliki house. He briefly put his hand on his gun, but quickly relaxed when he saw a familiar face walk out of the car. Steve straightened up.  
“Governor? What are you doing here?”  
“Makena and I might not have known each other for long, but he was the man who was going to marry my goddaughter, Commander. He needs the support.”  
“I understand that, Governor, but is this really the safest place for you to be right now? We still don’t know if this was a professional hit, or a strike against the company. There might still be someone out there, looking to hurt Makena Keliki. I don’t feel comfortable leaving you with a potential target, sir.”  
The Governor became angry, as his facial traits clearly shrunk together in an angry frown.  
“Then you had better hurry up and find out who did this, Commander. I asked you specifically to take care of this, so do it. Find the one—”  
He was interrupted by Steve’s phone ringing. Steve quickly silenced it when he saw the Governor was still angry. He pointed his finger at Steve.  
“You had better come up with something soon, Commander. I want to find out who killed my goddaughter.”  
Judging he had made a lasting impression, the Governor walked towards the house, flanked by his bodyguards. It was only when he disappeared through the door that Steve looked at his phone. He missed a call, from Danny. He cursed under his breath as he turned to Chin.  
“Well, you heard him.”  
“What do you want to do?”  
“For now, let’s haul all of our asses back to HQ, and go over this whole thing again. There has to be something we’re miss—”  
He was interrupted when his phone rang again. He expected it to be Danny, but was slightly surprised when he saw it was Kono. He took the call.  
“Kono? Wha—”  
“Steve! You… You have to come, now!”  
“Wow, calm down Kono. What’s going on?”  
She sounded out of breath, her voice was croaked, filled with fear and stress. Steve felt a strange weight in his stomach.  
“It’s… It’s Danny, Steve. You have to get over here!”  
“Okay, Kono, calm down. Where are you?”  
Her breath hitched as she said the answer, as if she was on the verge of tears.  
“The docks. We’re… We’re at the docks, with the yacht. Just… Hurry!”  
Steve hung up and climbed in the car as he ordered Chin:  
“We’re going to the docks, right now. Something happened.”  
No more questions were asked. They both started the engines of their vehicles and drove away from the house.

~~~

When he arrived at the docks, Steve grew even more worried. A column of black smoke was rising from the piers. He saw several fire trucks and an ambulance a little further beyond the gate. He pretty much pushed by the firefighter who was trying to stop him from entering, leaving Chin to explain that they were Five-0 and that this used to be a crime scene.  
Steve frantically looked for his female team member, and sighed in relief when he saw her sitting on the side of the ambulance. He quickly joined her and half expected Danny to be inside the ambulance, probably ranting about how close it had been, again. He was surprised not to find him. He quickly checked on Kono.  
“Kono, you okay, what happened?”  
She was being looked after a paramedic, who was stitching up the back of her head. When she looked Steve in the eyes, he suddenly noticed they were red, with tears still rolling down her cheeks.  
“Wow, Kono, what’s going on? Where’s Danny?”  
A firefighter standing behind him heard his question. He joined and quickly shook the hand of the Commander and of Chin, who had joined in as well.  
“Commander? Lieutenant Kalakaua told me you were the detective’s partner?”  
“Yes I’m—”  
He stopped when he realised what the firefighter had just said.  
“I’m sorry, what? Did you say ‘were’?”  
“I’m afraid so, Commander. From what your Lieutenant told me, Detective Williams was inside the yacht when the bomb went off.”  
“Wait, a bomb?! Would you please tell me what the Hell is going on here?”  
The Captain dragged Steve a little further from his team by the arm.  
“A bomb went off inside the yacht, less then half an hour ago, Commander. It completely destroyed the yacht, and everyone who might have been on board.”  
Steve swallowed. He took a moment to shift his feet. He looked the Captain dead in the eyes.  
“Captain, you had better make sure that what you’re telling me right now is one hundred percent confirmed. You cannot just walk up on me, drag me aside, and tell me that my partner is dead!”  
He was clearly losing his nerve. He hadn’t seen a body, or any proof, but the single fact, the mere idea that Danny could be dead destabilised him, to say the least. The Captain signed at someone near the truck, who brought him a bag with something in it.  
“We fished this up from the water. I’m sorry Commander.”  
Steve took the object with shaking hands. It was a badge, a Five-0 badge. In the distance, he heard the Captain continued to talk, something about running the badge number, but Steve didn’t need to run it, he knew his partner’s badge number by heart. And it was exactly what he was seeing on the badge, which was darker and a little burned on the sides.  
Everything inside him was in denial. Danny could not be dead. It was Danny. It was his ranting, pain in the ass, immortal, blonde detective Danny Williams. Steve shook his head.  
“No.”  
He said with a cracked-up voice.  
“Commander, it’s okay. You’re going through the first stage of grief; you’re in denial. Just, take the time to let it sink in, okay?”  
“Okay? OKAY? No, it’s not okay, Captain! This is my partner we are talking about! He can’t just be dead! He can’t—”  
Chin put a hand on his shoulder. Clearly, Kono had just told him what Steve learned a few minutes ago, because his face was flushed in pain too.  
“Steve. Let’s go.”  
“No, Chin, no! I am not leaving him, I am not leaving Danny!”  
“You are not leaving him. There’s just… There’s nothing you can do.”  
Steve yanked himself loose from Chin’s grip.  
“Do you have a body? I need to see a body, Captain.”  
“We’re fishing up parts of a body from the water right now. We’ve found a pretty burned up part of an arm and we’re hoping to get some DNA from it, but we’re not promising anything.”  
The Commander walked past the firefighter and stepped towards the pier, where the divers had barely bagged said body part. But the sight that made Steve stop, swallow and loose a few shades of colour wasn’t the fact that it might’ve been a part of Danny in that bag, it was the gun that one of the other divers who was barely surfacing was giving to one of his colleagues. It was the standard weapon used by most of the Five-0 team, except for Chin. It was Danny’s gun. He would never go anywhere without it. It wasn’t a body, but it might just as well have been one. Steve stared at the gun and suddenly the realization that Danny could, in fact, have been on that boat when it blew up and died there hit him. His partner was dead. He’d been torn to pieces caused by and explosion, and Steve hadn’t even been there. He had been nowhere close to him to even try and save him. All that because he was so headstrong about proving a point. That might’ve been the worst of it; it wasn’t even about proving a point, it had been about proving Danny wrong, so he could smile in that smug way of his while Danny rolled his eyes at him. He had been so stubborn, that he had completely dismissed Danny’s theory that the yacht might have something to do with it. And now Danny had paid for his mistake, with his life.  
Steve swallowed again, because he knew that if he didn’t, he would cry. He would scream on the top of his lungs, he would dive into the water and not come out before he’d pulled Danny out of there himself, and not held him close for hours and hours as he apologised for being such a pain, for disagreeing with him. He would apologise over and over again, until his voice was all but gone and all he could do was whimper at the sudden loss in his being. Suddenly very docile, he let Chin pull him away from the area, and simply stared at the remains of the yacht floating in the water. Still clinging to Danny’s badge, he didn’t even notice Chin had pushed him inside the Camaro, riding shotgun. Steve didn’t even care. As soon as the door closed, he balled his hands into fists and began crying.  
Steve had rarely shed tears. There was the time he’d lost his mother, and then his father, and then there was Freddie too. But this was an entirely new stage of crying, of sadness, of loss. This was losing Danny. He cried, even when Chin took place in the driver’s seat and started driving. He cried, even when they drove right by HQ. He cried, up until the point where Chin pulled up in his driveway and let Steve out at his home. At that point, he felt completely spent and empty, and just let Chin manhandle him on his couch. He felt numb, probably due to all the shaking, and didn’t move when Chin pulled a blanket on him. He stayed like that on the couch, empty and motionless, with Danny’s badge still clinging in his hand. Chin stayed there, he didn’t know how long, he’d completely lost track of time. He ended up falling asleep, his thoughts being around the badge in his hand, and his partner.

~~~

The next morning, Steve felt sore. He didn’t know what time it was, his alarm hadn’t woken him up. He got rid of the blanket and tried to stand up, but sat back down when he felt how stiff he was. He looked around and suddenly remembered that Chin was in the house with him when he’d fallen asleep. He looked around, but didn’t see the native anywhere.  
“Chin?”  
He asked, surprising himself at how croaked his voice sounded. His cheeks were on fire, and his hand ached, as if it had been in a certain state all night. He opened his fist and saw Danny’s badge, and everything hit him at once. The yacht, the bomb, Danny’s gun. Danny. Danny was gone. Steve felt like he had whiplash.  
“Danny?”  
He said aloud. Part of him was hoping that this was some kind of nightmare. But his house remained empty. He stayed seated for some time before looking at the clock. He suddenly realised he was late. He got up without thinking, quickly changed his shirt and paused in the mirror to look at the cargo pants he was wearing. The ones Danny would always rant about. Steve looked away and went outside, hoping to catch a break from everything that reminded him of Danny. He felt like screaming when he saw the black Camaro parked outside, in his driveway. The keys were still in his pants. He sat behind the wheel and inhaled and exhaled a few times, while looking next to him, hoping to see his partner appear next to him. After five minutes, Danny still remained absent, and Steve began backing up the car from the driveway.  
How exactly he made his way to HQ was a mystery and a blur, but Steve managed to get there without ignoring (too many) red lights. He parked the car and walked into HQ, where he didn’t even notice everyone who was staring at him. He was stuck inside his head, in which he imagined Danny already waiting in his office, filling in paperwork and probably grumpily drinking his coffee. He walked through the doors and stopped when he saw his entire team gathered around the smart table. He was still too dazed to become angry.  
“What are you guys doing here?”  
He asked his taskforce. Everyone was there: Chin, Kono, Grover, Jerry, even Max. But not Danny. He felt his heart flutter when every single one of his little ohana smiled warmly at him, some more marked by tears than others.  
“I guess we could ask you the same thing.”  
Chin said as he walked towards Steve. The Commander did his best not to flare in anger as he answered.  
“I’m here to find out what piece of scum did this to Danny. But you guys shouldn’t be here, you can go home—”  
He was interrupted by Kono.  
“No way boss. Danny is… Was ohana. We all want to find out who did this to Danny. Besides, there’s no way we’re going to let you do all the work.”  
Steve couldn’t help but to smile. He nodded as he felt the anger in his stomach decrease.  
“Thank you. All of you.”  
“Of course.”  
Lou said. Steve inhaled deeply, as if needing to bring himself back down to the ground, and then joined them at the smart table. Kono took this as her queue to begin the briefing:  
“So, Lou and I spoke to all of Akela’s friends and her father. Bottom line is that they’re all saying the same thing: Akela was supposed to meet them at the salon, but she never showed up. Her father kissed her goodbye when she left for the salon, which was around nine a.m.”  
“My guess,” said the former SWAT Captain, “is that something happened along the way. She must’ve been on her way to the salon when something or someone made her divert from her route, which led her to the yacht.”  
“I agree. Which is why I started looking at security cameras on the roads to find her vehicle and try to establish the way she went.”  
Chin said. He pulled up the footage on the screens and pointed out a bright red car.  
“There she is, a couple of blocks away from her home. She’s still on her way to the salon. But get this: she gets about halfway to where she needs to be when suddenly, on this crossroad, she does a straight U-turn.”  
As Chin pointed out, the vehicle is seen doing a 180°. He zoomed in on the driver’s seat, where Akela could be seen holding her phone.  
“She’s on the phone with someone.”  
Steve noted.  
“Yes. I’m thinking that’s her killer. He probably lured her to the yacht by calling her and told her to do a 180.”  
“Okay, that kind of narrows down the amount of people who could be our killer; there can’t be hundreds of people that had access to both the yacht and her phone number.”  
“Not to mention explosives…”  
Kono said under her breath. Clearly the back of her had was still aching. Not to mention that Danny was dead. Chin tried to remedy to the situation by splitting the case in several parts:  
“Maybe we should forget about the explosives for now. Don’t take this the wrong way Steve, but we shouldn’t focus too much on Danny. You said yourself that if we find Akela’s killer, we’ll find Danny’s.”  
“What are you saying, Chin?”  
Steve had clearly tensed up at the thought of forgetting about Danny. Chin laid a calming and reassuring hand on the Commander’s shoulder.  
“Maybe, we shouldn’t take the explosives into account. That’s part of Danny’s murder. We should look at this case as a company feud. Akela was the first victim, and the reason why Danny was out there in the first place. Forget about how Danny… Passed. Think about how Akela died.”  
Steve swallowed. Although he didn’t like what Chin was suggesting concerning Danny, Chin was probably right. Logic was enthusiastically nodding at the suggestion, but Steve’s emotions were shaking their heads in heavy opposition. Chin, along with every member of Five-0 patiently waited for Steve to respond. He didn’t even notice he had gotten a little paler. He ended up nodding.  
“Yeah, okay. You’re probably right.”  
He shook his head, as if to wake himself up.  
“Okay, so where do we usually begin in these usual cases?”  
He asked. Apparently, he needed to refresh his memory, or he just needed a reboot. It was hard to tell, without having Danny constantly nagging at his ear.  
“We determine if the feud is internal or external.”  
“Okay. Jerry, does Coastal Hawaii have any rivals that show a potential to violence? Employees with records, with behavioural problems?”  
“I’ll start running a background on noticeable rivals of Coastal Hawaii.”  
Jerry turned around and began typing on the table. While he was doing that, Max approached the small circle that had formed around Steve.  
“Commander. I came by to inform you of a new development that was made at the lab. I stopped by there earlier this morning, and met with Charlie, who has apparently been working all night to find something.”  
“What did he find?”  
Asked Kono.  
“After processing the victim’s clothes, he found a small, red fibre that was stuck in the tag on the rear of miss Hokulani’s shirt. After carefully examining it, he found it was from a silk, red clothing material. He even suspects that clothing material to be some kind of scarf, or shawl.”  
“Akela wasn’t wearing anything like that when we found it. Could it be our killer’s?”  
Asked Grover. Max nodded.  
“I am strongly inclined to believe so, Captain. Even though the marks on miss Hokulani’s neck were quite clear, there was still a remarkable lack of apparent direct skin contact. It is entirely possible that the killer covered miss Hokulani’s neck with the scarf, and then proceeded to strangle her, believing it might avoid leaving fingerprints or other hints of some kind that could indicate the killer’s identity.”  
“That’s great, Max. But what are the chances that our killer didn’t dump it in the ocean somewhere after the deed was done? He was smart enough to use it to avoid being found, why would he keep it?”  
“I don’t know, Lieutenant.”  
Said Max, shrugging at Chin.  
“Maybe that’s why he set the yacht to explode. He forgot to take the scarf with him, and instead of going back and risk getting caught, he blows it up.”  
Steve said. Chin shot him a look.  
“Steve, what did I say about the explosives? And besides, he would’ve had to go back to the yacht to rig it to explode anyways, so why not just take the scarf and leave?”  
Kono nodded.  
“He’s right. The whole exploding yacht thing just seems a little excessive for a single scarf.”  
Steve lowered his head. He clearly wasn’t at the top of his game. There were too many things around here that reminded him of Danny: his office, his desk, the spare shirt Steve knew he always kept in one of the lower drawers, along with a tie, just in case. Even the scent was still lingering a little. He thought that burying himself in work might make it easier for his mind to accept the painful fact that Danny was gone, but all it did was make it worse. Danny was a full-time part of his job. His job was something he always did with Danny, period. And now, even in that field, there was a void.  
Steve was pulled form his thoughts by Jerry.  
“I found no potentially threatening rivals among the other companies, sir. But, while you’ve been talking, I did some other digging and I found something weird.”  
The Five-0 members approached the table, interested in what Jerry had to say. All except for Max, who had left after his briefing, were now looking at what Jerry had to show them.  
“It took some twists and turns, but it turns out that some funds from the company have been transferred to an offshore account.”  
“How many are we talking about?”  
“Not much, considering the effort that was made to move it quietly, so nobody would notice. I’ll have to get a closer look, but from what I’ve seen, it’s barely enough to buy anything fancy here on the island.”  
“Why would anybody put so much effort in discreetly moving money from the company to another account if the sum barely has more than five digits?”  
Asked Chin. Kono joined her cousin’s line of thought:  
“Can you see who ordered the movement?”  
“I can actually. Let me just…”  
Jerry typed a few things and seemed surprised.  
“You’re not going to believe this. It was Makena.”  
Steve’s theories about him being the killer came back. He almost felt angry for being patient and understanding, supportive even, to the man who could’ve killed his partner. His best friend.  
“Let’s go.”  
He said. Chin stopped him before he could take a step however.  
“Hey, Steve, maybe you should, uh. Sit this one out.”  
“Why would I—”  
“You’re angry, Steve. And we get that, we’re all angry. But you charging into a suspect’s house on what is barely motive and a little suspicious at best, isn’t going to help us catch this guy any faster. Besides, it looks like you’re going to have to deal with a situation of your own.”  
Chin pointed behind Steve, where the Governor was walking through the doors. Steve’s gaze went back to Chin, still filled with sparks.  
“Kono and I will handle this. You, just focus on getting your head back in the game.”  
Steve sighed, but nodded. He watched Kono and Chin salute the Governor as they walked by before they left. Steve then walked towards the dark man in a suit. Without words, his superior signed with his head to go inside Danny’s office. Steve hesitated to follow. Danny’s office might not be the best place for him to be right now. But he went in anyways, a little needy to go to the space where Danny had spent a considerable amount of hours of his time, filling in paperwork and worrying about his stubborn best friend. Said stubborn best friend barely made eye contact with the Governor.  
“Commander. I heard what happened. I would like to offer you my deepest condolences.”  
“Thank you, sir.”  
Steve said, absent.  
“I hope this will not get in the way of your current investigation?”  
This time, Steve glared at the Governor with anger in his eyes, but he controlled his tone when he answered.  
“Danny’s death is part of our current investigation, sir. It won’t get in the way, because the two investigations are linked.”  
“But Akela’s murder is still your priority, right?”  
This time, Steve had more trouble controlling his anger.  
“All due respect, sir, but Danny was my partner. And Akela was, undoubtedly, a lovely woman. But their killers are one and the same. Therefor, neither will have priority. They are both just as important.”  
“I understand Commander. Listen, I know this is not exactly what you want to hear right now, but there are people I work with that have become concerned with this case. They fear the death of Detective Williams might affect your judgement.”  
Steve’s nostrils flared.  
“What are you saying, Governor?”  
“They’re asking me to pull you off the case, Commander. You are too personally involved in this.”  
Steve’s reaction surprised both the Governor and Steve himself. He’d punched Danny’s desk, on which the Governor was sitting. He was pretty sure he heard more than one of his knuckles crack, but didn’t care as most of his focus was on not punching the Governor himself. He inhaled deeply before answering.  
“You can’t do that, sir. We are the best unit on the island. Finding the guy who did this is still well within my team’s capabilities. Besides, you came to us in the first place. Pulling us off from Danny’s case would also be pulling us off from Akela’s case. Is that what you want?”  
The Governor’s eyes shrunk to small slits. Steve knew he was out of line, but in this rare instant, he didn’t care. Finding the one who took Danny away from him, away from his team, was the only thing that might give him some peace. The Governor sighed as he looked away.  
“Listen. I understand that what you’re going through is hard. I may seem cold to you for asking this, but in the end, I hope you find who did this. For both our sakes, it might give us some peace. For what it’s worth, Commander, I hope you catch him.”  
He stood up, and regained his usual, rigid stance after his brief heart to heart.  
“I won’t pull you from the case, Commander. Not yet, anyways. But you had better come up with something soon. Otherwise, it’ll be out of my hands.”  
“Give us forty-eight hours, Governor. We’ll find who did this.”  
Steve said, clearly calmed down by the honest and supportive words of his superior. The man grabbed the door handle.  
“Forty-eight hours, Commander. Not a second more.”  
Steve nodded and watched the Governor walk out of the Five-0 headquarters.

~~~

Kono and Chin arrived at the Keliki house, where the two siblings were still present, having been put under house arrest, as Chin learned from one of the security guards that had started patrolling the premises since that morning. According to the guard, they had been stationed there by the other members of the Coastal Hawaii board, to make sure neither of the major shareholders of the company would risk being killed after what happened to Akela. Chin and Kono went inside and found Makena sitting in the living, holding a glass of what appeared to be whiskey. He stood up when he saw the two natives walk in.  
“No need to get up, Mr. Keliki. We’re Five-0. My name is Chin Ho Kelly, this is Kono Kalakaua. Is your sister here?”  
“She’s… In the bathroom, I think. Cleaning herself up.”  
Makena sat back down. He had dark circles under his eyes. Kono frowned at the scent of whiskey.  
“Isn’t it a little too early for that, Mr. Keliki?”  
Makena stared at his glass for a moment, then shrugged and put it down.  
“Are you sober enough to answer some questions for us, Mr. Keliki? Do you want a glass of water?”  
“No thanks, I’m good, I had barely taken a few sips. Do I need to go get my sister?”  
“Actually, that won’t be necessary. We would like to talk to you in particular.”  
“Okay. What can I do for you?”  
“We were hoping you could explain to us why you moved money from Coastal Hawaii to an offshore account in your name.”  
Chin had barely begun the sentence that Makena jerked up and motioned him to talk quieter.  
“Shh, for God’s sake! Lower your voice!”  
Both cousins were surprised by the reaction and lifted their eyebrows. Makena looked behind Kono, to check if no one was coming, and then looked back at Chin.  
“Listen. It’s not what you think.”  
“Then what is it, Makena? You’ve been saying that a lot lately, and we honestly don’t know if we can believe you. Why did you move that money? Why are you hiding it?”  
Makena sighed and lowered his head.  
“I’m hiding it because no one can find out about it, especially not Kaliko.”  
“Why, Makena? Why can’t Kaliko find out?”  
“Because!”  
Makena briefly paused.  
“I am moving that money because, after Akela and I would have married, I would have sold the company.”  
“You were going to sell Coastal Hawaii?”  
“Yes.”  
“Are you allowed to do that? Isn’t Kaliko your partner in this, shouldn’t she get a vote?”  
Kono asked. Makena shook his head.  
“Officially, I inherited the company from our mother when she died. On paper, I am the major shareholder. Kaliko just has the same rights as I do in terms of command because she is my sister.”  
“Why would you want to sell your company? Your mother built it from the ground up, she put a lot of work into it. Why sell it? And why go behind Kaliko’s back?”  
“Listen, officer. I have been in this business for barely six months, and you might think it’s too early for me to make decisions like these, but… Real estate business, it’s disgusting. You tear land away from people to build massive hotel blocks on it, for profit. You block the view, you ruin the beauty of the Hawaiian coast. This business, it makes you brutal, unforgiving and cold. I do not want to be that kind of man.”  
“You’re not a businessman?”  
“God no. All that fuss about money, about profit, about land. I never understood it. I just wanted to get away from it.”  
“Then how come your mother signed the company off to you, and not your sister? She has a degree in business management; clearly, she is more cut out for this work than you are.”  
“Mother always thought of us in a very old-fashioned way. I was the big brother, the man in the family. It was logical for her that I would be in charge of the company once she was gone. Kaliko was always just the little sister, the weak, sweet girl mother always saw in her.”  
“Then why hide the sale from her? She seems to care about the company a lot more than you do, why sell it behind her back?”  
“This may seem cold and egotistical, officer, but I just don’t want her to turn out like all those businessmen I’ve been having meetings with for the past six months. When they spoke about houses, about families, even people, they saw them as nothing more but numbers, products. But they’re people. They’re not objects you can just take out of a house and leave on the street. They have lives. We can’t look the other way or do whatever we want because we have money, or resources. I understand that some businesses have to be run like that, but that doesn’t mean that I’ll let it happen in my name.”  
Chin looked at Kono, whose look had sweetened a little. She smiled.  
“I think I can understand why Akela liked you so much, Mr. Keliki.”  
She said as she sat down.  
“Yes, back to that. Say you successfully sold the company and married Akela, what then? You can’t possibly start a brand-new life up to there standards with the little amount of money you moved.”  
Makena smiled at Kelly, who was looking around him, as if to remind Makena that he was currently living in a very modern, very big and very expensive villa in Hawaii. There was sweetness and nostalgia in Makena’s look.  
“That’s because I didn’t want to meet these standards. Akela and I wanted a simple life, away from real estate, away from men in suits, away from the complicated management of business.”  
“What were you planning on doing then?”  
Kono asked. Makena looked away, his gaze seemingly lost in memory.  
“Akela and I met on the beach, where we were both surfing. We noticed each other, and understood that we came there pretty often, so I asked her to come have a drink with me. We talked, and hit the waves together, and before I knew it, I was madly in love and we were going to get married.”  
Chin and Kono gave Makena the time to finish his reminiscing.  
“Akela also wanted a simple life. She loved surfing, and passing it on to others. We were hoping to start a small business, maybe a surfboard rental place or something, or offer lessons. Live a simple, cheap life, one in which we could bring something to people, rather than to take something from them.”  
Chin looked at Kono again, with a sweet look in his eye as well. He sighed.  
“Very well, Mr. Keliki. We’ll leave you be. Thank you for your help.”  
Chin and Kono left after leaving their best wishes with Makena. Once outside, they stopped a little before reaching their car and debated on what they had just learned:  
“You think he’s telling the truth?”  
Chin asked.  
“I do. I think I can understand Makena a little better now. He put up for six months, doing something he hated, just so that he could move money for him and his wife so start something new, something simple. People who do that for this long don’t just go around killing their fiancés.”  
“Agreed. Think Steve is going to be happy to learn that though? Keliki was his favourite suspect to hit on.”  
Kono thought about that for a while.  
“Hey coz, what if he’s right? What if there is a Keliki behind all this?”  
“What are you thinking?”  
“Well, Makena assumes that Kaliko doesn’t know about his little operation, right? But what if she did? What if she somehow found out what Makena was doing behind her back?”  
“It’s possible. But why go for Akela then? It’s Makena she should be angry at, not Akela.”  
“Maybe… Then again, if Kaliko wanted to hurt her brother, she would know that to do something to him that really stings, is to take away the one thing he loved; Akela.”  
“You know what coz, you might be up to something there.”  
“Yeah, it’s called motive.”  
Chin smiled as he stepped in the car in synch with his cousin.  
“You call Steve and tell him what we’ve learned. I’m going to make sure Kaliko gets summoned at Five-0 headquarters.”  
“You got it. Think Steve’s going to be able to keep it together during interrogation though?”  
Chin lowered his phone from his ear and looked at his cousin.  
“I know he can. We’re all hurting right now Kono, especially Steve. But I trust him to do the right thing. He knows he’s going to have to do things by the book if he wants any of this to stick. He’ll pull through, just like all of us.”  
Kono took a moment to answer.  
“I hope you’re right coz.”  
“Hey, it’s the least we can do for Danny.”  
“Yeah. You’re right.”  
Kono shook her head, as if to rid her thoughts of anything that could remind her of Danny, and started the car.

~~~

In the barely lit, blue room, on the chair in the middle of it all, was sitting Kaliko. She was sitting rather relaxed, with her head bowed against her torso. She looked up when Steve came in, alone. She sighed, clearly annoyed.  
“Finally! Commander, why couldn’t we do this interview in your office? Why am I being treated like a suspect?”  
“Because you are a suspect, miss Keliki.”  
The woman clicked her heels on the freezing ground and let out a small, unbelieving laugh before looking back at Steve, who still had a deadly serious look on his face.  
“You’re kidding right?”  
“Do I look like I’m kidding, miss Keliki?”  
Kaliko slowly lost her smile. Steve felt like he had her attention so he took his phone out of his pocket as he began speaking:  
“See, miss Keliki, usually, when we interrogate a woman, we hold back a little in the beginning. We feel the waters a little, find out exactly how much she cares. We don’t hit her with everything we have from the get-go, either because they are truly innocent and we give them the benefit of the doubt, or because they are guilty and we want to hear them spin a ridiculous lie we can then slowly dismantle in front of her with piles of evidence, and watch the look on her face slowly phase to horror. Except that this time, I’m not going to do that. You know why? Because usually, the man who convinces me of the potential innocence of a woman is my partner, Danny Williams.”  
Steve showed his phone to Kaliko, showing a picture of Danny.  
“Except this time, miss Keliki, my partner isn’t here to do that. You know why? Because he’s dead. He died because the yacht your were-to-be sister-in-law was murdered on exploded yesterday, with him on it.”  
Kaliko was maintaining eye-contact with her interrogator, but she had gone quiet and wiped the smirk off her face.  
“So, I’m not going to be nice about it, miss Keliki. The people who end up here, rather than in my office, they end up here for good reason.”  
The woman gulped. Now that Steve knew he had her complete attention and understood he wasn’t playing around, he began his interrogation:  
“We’ll start of easy: how is your relationship with your brother?”  
“It’s good. Why would you ask that?”  
“Define ‘good’.”  
“We’re getting along. Ever since mom died we’ve tried to stick together. It’s not always easy. We’re pretty busy with the company, but we work together on a daily basis and that requires us to get along.”  
“That’s still pretty vague. Why aren’t you giving me a straight answer?”  
“Look, this is insane. What would I have against my brother? He’s the only family I have left. Why would I push him away?”  
“I don’t know, Kaliko. Maybe it’s because you learned of what your brother was doing. Maybe you learned what he was planning to do with the company.”  
“What? What do you mean? What was he planning?”  
“Nice try, Kaliko. Don’t pretend you don’t know.”  
“Know what? I don’t know what you’re talking about!”  
“You knew your brother was moving funds from the company to a secret account. You knew that once he was married to Akela, he would sell the company.”  
“What?”  
“Don’t play dumb with me, Kaliko. You’re his sister. You must’ve known something was up.”  
“I—”  
Kaliko was interrupted when the door opened. Chin’s head popped through the door and motioned Steve to join him. Steve gave Kaliko one last look before joining his co-worker, who closed the door behind him.  
“Steve, what are you doing?”  
“What are you talking about, Chin? I’m trying to get through to her!”  
“You were practically shouting at a suspect, on whom we have nothing more than suspicions that she had motive.”  
“Exactly. I’m trying to get her to confess!”  
“Confess for what, Steve? You clearly just dropped a bomb on her, she’s shaken! We don’t even know for sure if she knew about what Makena was planning.”  
“I’m trying to find that out!”  
“No. You’re trying to pin Danny’s death on the most suited person that gets in your line of sight. Just because she is a suspect doesn’t mean she’s guilty, Steve!”  
“How would you know?”  
“Steve, for God’s sake, listen to yourself! What happened to doing things by the book? What would Danny say if he saw you behave like this?”  
Steve froze. Chin had clearly struck a nerve. Steve looked away, and noticed the time. He suddenly realised something. He looked back to Chin and seemed to calm down.  
“Okay, you’re right. I’m sorry. You finish the interrogation. I’ll go clear my head.”  
Chin grabbed his superior by the arm.  
“You sure?”  
“Yes, Chin, I’m sure.”  
Steve pulled himself loose from his friend and went upstairs, where he was greeted by the confused pairs of eyes from Kono, Grover and Jerry.  
“Kono. Have Rachel and Grace been notified yet?”  
He suddenly asked. Kono shook her head.  
“I asked the HPD to let us handle it. I thought we would let you tell them.”  
“Okay, good. At what time does Grace finish school again?”  
“It’s Wednesday Steve. Somewhere around noon?”  
“I have to go. I have to go get Grace.”  
“Steve, are you sure that’s a good idea?”  
“She has to know, Lou.”  
And without waiting for an answer, Steve practically ran out of the building.

~~~

He parked the Camaro near the school gates and stepped outside. He sat down on a bench from where Grace could clearly see him, and began reciting things in his head. How on earth do you tell a young girl that her father isn’t coming home? He sunk into his thoughts, and was brutally pulled from them when the bell rang, and Steve still had no idea how to break Grace’s heart.  
He saw her come down the stairs. She noticed him in the blink of an eye, quickly said goodbye to her friends and ran to Steve, with a smile on her face. Steve nearly broke out in tears right then and there, knowing how hard it would be for her to smile ever again.  
“Uncle Steve! What are you doing here?”  
“Hey Gracie.”  
He said, and put a gentle kiss on her forehead as she wrapped her arms around him. He sat down and motioned for her to sit down next to him.  
“Uncle Steve, what’s going on? Why are you crying?”  
Steve was surprised. Apparently, a tear had managed to escape his eyes anyways. He broke down. He hid his eyes in his hand, and felt Grace’s arms wrap around his waist.  
“Uncle Steve, what’s wrong? Where’s Danno?”  
It took Steve a full minute to regain a little of his composure and raise his head again, this time with tears flooding his face.  
“Grace… I’m so sorry. I can’t…”  
Steve was even more destroyed when he saw the growing worrying look on her face. Her eyes watered up at the mere sight of seeing Steve cry. Steve never cried. Something was very wrong.  
“Uncle Steve? Where’s Danno?”  
She asked. That damn Williams gene. Of course she would figure it out.  
“He’s gone, Grace. I’m sorry. He’s gone.”  
Her lip trembled. When she spoke, her voice was broken, fragile, unbearable.  
“Uncle Steve, where’s Danno?”  
“I’m so sorry, Grace. I—”  
He couldn’t get any further.  
“Where’s Danno?”  
She asked again. But Steve couldn’t bring himself to answer. He didn’t want to say it. He refused to say it, because even now, it couldn’t be true.  
“He’s gone, Gracie. He’s gone. I’m so sorry, sweetheart. I’m so sorry.”  
“No…”  
She teared up in the most unbearable way. She hid herself in Steve’s arms, and for a moment Steve was thankful that she wasn’t blaming him, although he was still blaming himself. Steve stroked her head as she cried his shirt wet. He buried his nose in her hair and smelled it, as if hoping to find some trace of that reassuring Williams smell.  
“I’m sorry, Grace, I’m sorry.”  
He continued to repeat. As he sat there, he didn’t even notice the light change around him. Noon became afternoon, but Steve didn’t care. The small body of a young child was pressed against his, and it was in just as much pain as he was, maybe even more. All he knew, was that right now, moving was not an option, because they both needed to feel the traces of Danny that he had left on each of them. Steve knew that he was not going to let go of Grace for some time, and neither was she.

~~~

After Steve had left, Chin went back inside the interrogation room and looked Kaliko in the eyes. She seemed a little scared of him. He quickly reassures her though:  
“Apologies for my superior. He’s not himself right now.”  
“You can say that again!”  
She spat.  
“Doesn’t mean he was entirely wrong, miss Keliki. Why wouldn’t you give him a straight answer about the relationship with your brother?”  
She looked away.  
“I don’t want to be seen as a guilty person. Makena and I have been drifting apart lately, he’s less present, not just at home, but in the company as well. It’s he has his mind set on something else. I couldn’t figure out why, but now that brute tells me that he’s planning on selling the company? Why would he do that? Why would he betray us like that?”  
“So you didn’t know about his plans? You learned this from us, today?”  
“Yes! I had no idea what he was planning!”  
Chin was quiet for a moment, trying to read Kaliko’s body language.  
“Okay. Say I believe you. My colleagues and I are still having some trouble believing your alibi. Could you go over it again, please?”  
Kaliko sighed.  
“It’s like I told the other officer! Makena and I were at a meeting, together. I got a call from an attorney, saying there was an urgent matter for me to discuss with him, so I left the meeting for some time to discuss the matter with him, and then returned to the meeting again. That was the only time I was not with my brother.”  
“This attorney, can he confirm this for you?”  
“Of course he can. I’ll give you his phone number. You can check.”  
“We will.”  
Chin said, and he walked out of the room. He told the guards to escort Kaliko to the exit as he began the briefing without Steve. Grover was a little pissed.  
“So, we’re letting go of our only possible suspect with motive?”  
“We don’t have enough charges to hold her. She seemed pretty honest about not knowing about Makena’s plans, which takes away her motive.”  
“Alibi also seems to check out. I just got a text from that attorney she mentioned, he’s confirming that she did, in fact come up to his office to discuss a matter about the company with him.”  
Jerry said. Chin exhaled loudly.  
“So we’re back to square one. Again.”  
“Not necessarily.”  
Kono said.  
“If we can rule out both of the Keliki’s, maybe we just have to go further down the line. Jerry, can you see who of the employees would be the most entitled to becoming the head of the company if both Kaliko and Makena resigned from their posts?”  
“That would be… Rose Bernung. She’s the next one in line for Kaliko’s post if Kaliko were to resign. Makena hasn’t pointed out a successor yet.”  
“Okay. Kono, you stay here and dig up some more intel we can get about the chain of command of Coastal Hawaii. Grover and I are going to pay Rose a visit.”

~~~

In the car, Chin got a call from Kono, stating that another person of interest could also be a certain Ched Cronwell, the lawyer and face of the firm on legal grounds. Grover and Chin decided to split up. Chin would go and talk to Rose, as Grover would go have a word with Ched. They both went their separate ways when they entered the building, and almost happily barged into both of the people of interest’s offices. Chin caught Rose off guard, and she seemed rather nervous when talking to him, but he found absolutely no inconsistency within her alibi or motive, so soon gave up on the idea that she might be involved, so he joined Grover in Ched’s office. Ched, unlike rose, was calm and composed when talking to Grover. Grover was about to ask him about a precise depiction of his alibi when Chin walked in.  
“Rose is clean, her alibi’s strong and I can’t see why she would want to kill Akela. How’s your little talk going?”  
“Oh, good. We were just getting to the interesting part, weren’t we, Ched?”  
Chin half listened to what Ched was saying, and looked around the office at the same time. When he passed behind Ched to have a look at the view that was stretching out behind him, he couldn’t help but to wonder why anyone would have their desk face away from such a magnificent view. He turned around and was about to ask the question, when his mouth fell open and he took out a pair of latex gloves. He went under Ched’s desk, having the small, bald man protest in the process and Lou standing up.  
“Chin, what the Hell are you doing?”  
Chin answered by sliding the bin towards him, so that all three men in the office could see inside it. With his latex gloves, Chin held up a red, silk scarf. Both officers looked at Ched. Grover took a very cocky tone when he spoke to Ched.  
“Well well well. Look what we have here.”

~~~

Steve’s ringtone was what pulled him out of his fogged mind. Grace was still pressing against him. He tried not to disturb her as he pulled out his phone from his pocket.  
“McGarrett.”  
He said with an exhausted voice.  
“Steve, it’s Chin. Where are you? You okay?”  
“I’m uh. I’m holding on. What is it?”  
“We might have something. We found the scarf.”  
“Wait, the uh. The red scarf.”  
“That’s the one.”  
“Okay. I’ll be right over. Just, give me a couple of minutes. I need to uh. Drop Gracie off.”  
“Of course, brah. Take the time you need.”  
Steve hung up and nudged Grace a little to see if she was ready to move.  
“Grace?”  
“Don’t move. Uncle Steve. Please don’t go.”  
“Gracie, I know this is hard, but you have to go tell your mom. You have to be with her. I have to go back to work. We might have found something that is going to help us find who did this.”  
Grace looked up, straight at Steve. Her eyes were red and dry, she had gotten rid of every tear in her body. Steve gently stroked her cheek.  
“I know it’s hard Gracie, but I need you to be strong okay?”  
Grace didn’t say anything, but she suddenly nodded. She seemed confident, knowing that Uncle Steve needed to do his job to know who did this to Danno.  
“You’re going to find him, right?”  
“Yes, Grace. I will. I promise. I’ll find him.”  
“Good.”  
She said, surprisingly cold. Steve stood up and held Grace’s hand as they walked towards the Camaro. Grace sat shotgun, and was quiet during the entire ride. Steve gripped the steering wheel tight. These following few hours were going to be very trying for him, and he knew it was going to be a pain. But if Gracie could be as strong as she was now, then so could he. He knew that that was what Danny would’ve wanted.


	3. Chapter 3

It was almost dark when Steve pulled up at HQ in the Camaro. Before stepping out of the car, he wiped his cheeks a few times, and tried to see in the rear-view mirror if his eyes were still red. Gracie had practically pulled him out of the car when they got to Rachel’s house, begging for him to go with her. However strong she was, telling her mom that Danny was dead was still beyond her, and she needed Steve’s shoulders at her side to bare the weight of the news. Rachel hadn’t reacted much better than Gracie, although she tried to show more strength. Steve didn’t stick around as long as he did with Grace, explaining to Rachel that he had to go back to work to find the one who took Danny away from them, as he had promised Grace.  
After concluding that it wouldn’t be too noticeable, Steve stepped out of the Camaro and was incredibly grateful to find most of the Five-0 building empty, since it was past working hours. The only ones still present in the building were the members of Five-0. As he walked into the briefing room, he saw that Charlie had made the special trip to the headquarters, along with the scarf. When his ohana noticed him coming in, they all stepped forward to see if he was okay, Chin being the first to reach him.  
“You okay brah?”  
“Yeah. I’m good.”  
“How are Grace and Rachel taking it?”  
Kono asked, her gaze filled with empathy.  
“They’re crumbling. It’s unbearable to see Grace like that.”  
All of them nodded, understanding what Steve was talking about. He quickly cleared his throat.  
“So, what do we got?”  
Charlie seemed to wake up when he realized it was his turn to perform some fancy explanation.  
“Well, I analysed the scarf, and I can confirm that it is the same scarf the killer used to wrap around Akela’s neck and protecting his fingers.”  
“And what about the suspect? You said you had a suspect?”  
Jerry tapped a few times on the smart table and pulled up the file.  
“His name is Ched Cronwell. He’s been with the company for almost five years now, working mostly on the legal grounds of their business. He’s apparently also pretty good at it. He has been able to tip more than a few cases against Coastal Hawaii in their favour.”  
“Okay. Have we been able to get something out of him yet?”  
“We haven’t begun the interrogation yet.”  
“What? Why not?”  
Chin sighed as he pulled Steve aside, into his office.  
“Listen Steve. We get that you’re hurting. We all are. But that stunt you pulled with Kaliko, we can’t have that happen again. You’re lucky she didn’t press charges.”  
“I get it, Chin. I do. I’m sorry. But losing Danny, it’s been—”  
“We know how hard it’s been, Steve. But that doesn’t mean that you can lash out like that.”  
“Yeah, I know. But I think that talking with Gracie and spending some time with her, it cleared my head a little. I think I have a better picture of what exactly is depending on doing things by the book to get this guy. I’ll control myself from now on.”  
“Good. Because you’re doing the interrogation.”  
“Are you sure?”  
“Yes, Steve. We’re sure. You messed up with Kaliko. Now that you’ve had some time to think, you have another shot. Go talk to that guy, and make him talk, boss.”  
Steve couldn’t help but to smile. Chin had clearly spent time with his father. He knew when to give people another shot, and when to pull the leash. Steve nodded.  
“Thanks man.”  
Chin nodded back. Steve left his office and went downstairs to the basement to begin the interrogation.  
Before Steve entered the room, he took a deep breath and revised his method. He could not afford to make the same mistake he made with Kaliko, which is why he chose to kick the interrogation off with an entirely different mindset. He was going to be the pal, the friend, the only friend the suspect would have in that room. He went through the door and made eye-contact with Ched, who had clearly been sweating nervously in his chair.  
“Hey Ched. How you doing?”  
The lawyer didn’t answer.  
“You thirsty? Can I get you anything?”  
Once more, Ched remained silent, and shook his head. Steve held the scarf that had been put in a plastic evidence bag in front of him.  
“Recognise this, Ched?”  
Ched shook his head again.  
“Don’t lie to me, Ched.”  
Steve said, like a parent who had just caught their child stealing from the cookie jar.  
“I have never seen that scarf before in my life! I swear!”  
“Okay, then please explain to me how it ended up in your trashcan?”  
“I don’t know! I don’t know.”  
Ched repeated. Steve pouted. Ched’s body language was clearly stating he was telling the truth.  
“Okay. Then tell me this: do you know anyone who works at Coastal Hawaii who could have a scarf like this?”  
“I don’t know. I don’t really pay attention to those things.”  
When he saw that Steve clearly wasn’t satisfied with that answer, he quickly added something:  
“But, but! I don’t think any of the guys I work with would wear something like that! It’s probably a woman. What about Rose?”  
“Rose was clean, Ched. But I have to admit you might be onto something here. You look like a smart guy, why would you leave evidence in the trashcan of your own office? It clearly doesn’t fit. Do you think you know any women in the company who might have a reason for framing you like this?”  
“I don’t know, sir. I’m a lawyer, there are a lot of people who don’t like to see me show up at their office. Most of the time, whenever I show up, people think they’re in trouble, and they don’t like that, so they don’t like me much either.”  
Steve was silent for a few moments.  
“How come you didn’t notice it though? It’s bright red, for God’s sake.”  
“Do I look like a guy who looks in the trashcan a lot?”  
Steve couldn’t help but to grant Ched the fact that he was indeed the kind of guy that didn’t concern himself with trash much.  
“Has Coastal Hawaii employed anyone new recently? Anyone with a record? Have you noticed new janitors show up?”  
“No.”  
A heavy sigh escaped Steve’s mouth. This entire thing had been useless. They were back at square one AGAIN. And it was really pissing Steve off.  
“Okay, you can go.”  
Steve said quickly, dismissing the nervous man from his handcuffs. When he met with his team upstairs again, he practically slammed the evidence bag on the table.  
“Well that was a huge waste of time.”  
He said. At that moment, a man came through the doors. He was wearing a light brown suit, and he was sweating and clearly nervous. The entire team looked at him when he cleared his throat.  
“Commander McGarrett?”  
Steve was surprised to see the man and briefly put his hand on his gun.  
“Yes?”  
He asked, warily.  
“My name is Ben Brendson. I’m Mr. Keliki’s lawyer. I need your help.”  
Steve was confused.  
“Wait, isn’t Ched the Keliki’s lawyer?”  
“Makena hired my services for his own, personal business. He didn’t want to involve anyone from the company with what he was planning.”  
Steve lifted his hand from his gun and signed his team to do the same.  
“Why did he hire you?”  
The man came closer and opened his briefcase. He took out a file and showed a paper to Steve. He quickly skimmed through it and looked up to inform his team what he was holding in his hand.  
“This is Makena’s Will.”  
“Indeed.”  
“Why would he have to establish a Will this early in his life? Did he feel his life was in danger?”  
“He didn’t. But he grew more and more worried about his sister Kaliko. He didn’t want her to become a businesswoman, so he arranged for the company to go to Akela in case something happened to him anyways.”  
“But Akela is dead, Mr. Brendson.”  
“I heard, commander, that is why I am here. I am not sure how, but I think someone managed to get a copy of Makena’s Will from my computer. I fear that if his Will falls into the wrong hands, his life could be in serious danger.”  
“Why?”  
“Because, with Akela dead, if something were to happen to Makena, the company would go to the only relative he still has: Kaliko.”  
Chin and Kono shared a look.  
“The guards at the Keliki household.”  
Chin said, hoping Steve had caught on with their line of thought. Steve immediately gestured for the two cousins to leave.  
“Go, make sure nothing happens to Makena. As for you, Ben, why don’t you begin telling us everything from the start?”

~~~

When Chin and Kono arrived at the house, the guards were still there. Chin and Kono held up their badges.  
“Five-0. Nobody move.”  
One of the guards stepped forwards, he looked clearly pissed by the two natives’ request.  
“What is going on here?”  
“Five-0, in case you didn’t hear the first time. Are you the head of security?”  
“Yes, I am. Tony Kekau.”  
He said as he briefly shook Chin’s hand.  
“Good. I take it you know all of your men?”  
“I do.”  
“Alright. Get everyone together and do a headcount. Anyone new, or anyone you don’t know, flag them and hold them.”  
“I’m not doing anything before you tell me what is going on!”  
“We have reason to believe there is someone in this security detail here to murder Mr. Keliki. Now do your job and get us that headcount!”  
Chin nearly shouted. Tony’s eyes went wide and he immediately radioed all of his men to get to the front door as soon as possible. Within the minute, a small detail of nine men was standing in a line, not counting Tony. He frowned.  
“What? What is it?”  
“Hey, Keki, where is the new guy?”  
Keki, one of the guards, shrugged. Chin immediately drew his gun and ran inside.  
“Makena! Kaliko! Where are you?”  
There was no answer, but he pointed his gun at the stairs when he heard someone come down from them. Kaliko let out a small scream when she saw the officer point a gun at her, but was quickly silenced when Kono came through the door as well and put a finger on her lips.  
“Where is Makena?”  
She whispered.  
“I think he’s in the garden. What’s going on?”  
She asked, clearly panicking. Chin didn’t answer her question, and gave her an order instead.  
“Go outside, your security detail will protect you.”  
“But—”  
“Now, Miss Keliki!”  
Kaliko didn’t need to be told twice and bolted out the door. Chin and Kono proceeded to the back of the house and slid open the backdoor. They saw Makena sitting on a bench in the back end of the garden, which was about twenty feet away. Chin was about to shout his name when he saw a shadow move in the bushes. He pointed his gun and fired.  
“Gun!”  
He shouted at the sight of the weapon. The man, dressed in the same clothes as the other men from the security detail, took a first shot to the shoulder and another to his left side, which he was pointing at the two members of Five-0. He fell on the ground and let go of the gun he was holding in his hand, with a silencer on it. Makena, who had jumped up from the bench when he heard the shots, was now backing away from everyone. Chin went to check on the perpetrator, while Kono ran towards Makena.  
“Are you okay, Mr. Keliki?”  
“I… Yes, I’m fine. Who is that?”  
“Someone who was trying to kill you. Looks like we got here just in time though.”  
She looked at Chin who had his fingers placed on the man’s neck, but he shook his head. Kono cursed under her breath. They had just shot and killed the only lead that could bring them straight to Akela’s killer. Tony Kekau and his detail came running in the backyard, swarming it. Kaliko was right behind them, yelling her brother’s name. Chin went up to Tony while putting his gun back in his holster.  
“We’re going to need everything you’ve got on this man, Mr. Kekau.”  
Clearly in shock, Tony simply nodded. He tried to show some composure by telling his other men to make sure the premises was secure, but Chin could see how shaken he was by the body that was lying in the grass, turning the green to red. Chin put a hand on his shoulder.  
“Hey, it’s fine. The danger is gone.”  
“Yes, thank you, officer. I’ve just… Never seen a body before.”  
Chin gave him a friendly tap on the shoulder and then joined up with Kono near the back door. She had already dialled Steve.

~~~

“Kono? Give me the good news.”  
“We got here just in time Steve. Makena’s a little shaken, but he’s fine.”  
Steve sighed in relief and gave a small nod to Ben, who was sitting in front of him in his office. He also seemed to sigh in relief.  
“Okay, thanks Kono. Great job. Is our guy talking?”  
“Not really Steve. He’s dead.”  
Steve also cursed under his breath.  
“Okay. That’s okay. We’ll find another way. Call HPD, tell them to get a team down there, get the body to Max, I want to know everything there is to know about this guy.”  
“You got it, boss.”  
Steve hung up and directed his attention back to Ben.  
“Looks like we cut it a little close, but Makena is fine. You did a good thing, coming to see us.”  
“I was only doing what was right, commander.”  
Jerry decided to pop his head through the door at that time.  
“Commander, I found something.”  
Steve got up from his chair and joined Jerry with Ben at the smart table. Ben’s laptop, which he had so kindly brought along, was connected through a cable to the table. Jerry pulled up some windows that showed programming query’s in them.  
“So, after sweeping Brendson’s laptop, I found that someone sent him a malware virus via email, which ended up in the trash, so that it could remain undetected. The malware didn’t do any permanent damage to the system itself, but it did make a copy of all his files and sent them to an unknown IP address.”  
“Can you track it?”  
“I tried. But it came back to a local electronics café. Anyone could have had access from there.”  
“So we can assume that someone, probably our killer, has access to Makena’s Will, which he wanted no one to know about?”  
Jerry nodded.  
“Great. Just great.”  
Steve began, pissed at the problems this case was throwing at him. If Danny were here, he would probably tell him—  
But Danny wasn’t here. Steve had to do this without Danny. And he was going to have to get used to that, because Danny was dead. He still felt a small wince of pain every time his brain reminded him of that. He shook the feeling off reluctantly, knowing he wasn’t just surrounded by teammates.  
“Commander?”  
Jerry asked, worried.  
“I’m fine, Jerry.”  
He turned to Brendson.  
“Mr. Brendson. Anything you can tell us would help us right now. Who do you think would benefit from knowing and possessing Makena’s Will?”  
“I’m afraid that extends to quite a lot of people, commander. Rivals, lawyers, potential candidates, and so on. A lot of people could get something out of this piece of paper.”  
“But the one who had the most to gain?”  
“That would be Kaliko, commander, Mr. Keliki’s sister. With Akela dead and if Makena were to die as well, she would inherit the entire company.”  
Steve looked at Jerry, who was nodding, thinking it was consistent. Steve tried to contain the rage that was boiling inside of him, but he maintained a straight face.  
“Thank you, Mr. Brendson. We will call for an escort to make sure nothing happens to you on the way home. We’ll stay in touch.”  
“Thank you, commander.”  
Steve waited until the lawyer left before he slammed his fist on the smart table, making Jerry jump.  
“That lying, snake-woman lied! Straight to my face!”  
“Maybe it’s not her, commander, maybe—”  
“Save it, Jerry. It’s her. I know it is.”  
“Maybe we should wait until Chin and Kono get here.”  
He suggested, still trying to dismantle Steve’s anger. Steve took a deep breath, reminding himself that he rarely snapped in front of his teammates, especially Danny.  
“Okay. Call Chin and Kono and tell them to get back here asap. And where is Lou?”  
“He’s getting Ched back home. He didn’t really like the look he was giving him.”  
“Call him too. Tell him to get back here. We have a timeline to review.”

~~~

When everyone was back at HQ, Steve stepped out of Danny’s office, which still had all of his stuff in it. Steve had tried to get everything together, but he couldn’t bring himself to take the frame with a picture of Danny and Grace off the desk, and thus left it as if Danny had never left. He noticed the sweet look his ohana was giving him, but he decided not to melt into it this time.  
“Alright guys. We have a timeline to review.”  
“Which one?”  
“Kaliko’s. She’s been lying straight to our faces. I bet you she knew about Makena’s plans, and his Will, which is why she killed Akela. And that attempt at Makena’s life, with her inside the house? What better alibi than to be a witness to a murder? She’s playing us, and she thinks she can get away with it because she has a waterproof plan, but we’re going to prove her wrong. I need every second, every minute of her alibi taken apart and tested, to see if there was an opening in which she could have slipped away. And when we find that opening, and we will, we’ll have enough for a warrant to search her computer.”  
Chin smiled, seeing Steve was slowly getting back to being Steve. In fact, the entire team smiled, happy to see that Steve was gaining his composure again and dealing with the pain and emptiness Danny had left behind for them to digest. They all separated and began taking apart Kaliko’s timeline. Each of them took a certain part of the timeline for themselves: Chin and Kono focused on the time she was in the meeting, Lou and Jerry oversaw her visit to the attorney and Steve focused on eventual gaps and irregularities between the two. They went over it three times before Lou slammed his fist on the table.  
“Dammit Steve, it’s the third time now, and we haven’t found anything! Are you sure about this?”  
“I’m sure Lou. Akela’s murderer is a Keliki, and it’s not Makena.”  
“Look, Steve, I know you want to find who did this to Danny, we all do, but this is insane. She couldn’t have slipped away. She was with someone almost the whole time, and the times she wasn’t with someone lasted for no more than a few minutes. She couldn’t have gone from the building to the yacht and back in a few minutes! And everyone she’s been with vouches for her!”  
“Everyone?”  
Something inside Steve’s head clicked.  
“Jerry? Do you still have the number of that attorney Kaliko went to see?”  
“Yes. Why?”  
He asked slowly, not following where this way going.  
“Pull up his records.”  
“From a phone number?”  
“You’re the best, Jerry. Find a way. We need those records.”  
Steve said, determined. Kono’s phone rang. She answered it and barely exchanged a few words with the person on the other end before hanging up again.  
“That was Max. He says there’s nothing unusual with the body of the guy who was trying to kill Makena. Charlie went through his records, even his back account, but so far, nothing popped up. For all he can tell, this was an isolated hit.”  
Steve nodded, surprisingly calm, and watched Jerry work his magic on the smart table. Lou looked at the clock, indicating it was almost 1 a.m. Time was running out for them. Luckily, Jerry was a fast worker and soon the attorney’s records showed on screen. Jerry began the summary:  
“His name is Victor Fletcher. He is an independent attorney, he has recently been hired by Coastal Hawaii for a few cases, which he apparently all closed. And he is, apparently, on the blacklist of quite a number of casino’s in Oahu.”  
“So, our attorney has a gambling problem. So what?”  
Lou asked, still cynical. Steve smiled as he turned to Lou to answer his question.  
“You know what goes together with gambling problems? Debts.”  
He said. Jerry opened up the financial records and the big numbers immediately attracted attention.  
“Wow. That’s a lot of zero’s.”  
Kono said.  
“Yeah, but where do they come from? Last time I checked, being an attorney didn’t pay that well.”  
Jerry began tracing back where the money came from, which turned out was gathered over a few days through independent, small and irregular transfers of random sums of money.  
“Holy crap, commander, you were right. The transfers go through a few companies and banks, but they all come from the same place.”  
On screen, the logo of Coastal Hawaii appeared. Steve’s smile grew even wider. He turned to Lou.  
“Think that’ll be enough for a warrant?”  
“Oh yes.”  
Lou said, happy about this find.

~~~

At 6 a.m. sharp, Steve, flanked by the integrity of the Five-0 taskforce (well, Five-0 minus one) rang the bell of the Keliki house. He rang it again and shouted:  
“Five-0, open up!”  
It took a while, but the door ended up opening, showing a tired and barely woken up Kaliko Keliki.  
“Commander? What’s going on?”  
Steve couldn’t help but to grin.  
“Turn around, miss Keliki. Hands behind your back.”  
“Excuse me? Do you know what time it is?”  
“It’s six in the morning. Now put your hands behind you back.”  
Kaliko didn’t seem too enthusiastic, but she obeyed and didn’t even fight back when Steve put the cuffs around her wrists.  
“Kaliko Keliki, you are under arrest for the murder of Akela Hokulani and Detective Danny Williams, and the attempted murder of Makena Keliki. You have the right to remain silent. Anything you say can and will be used against you in the court of law. You have the right to an attorney. If you cannot afford an attorney, one will be provided for you.”  
Steve dragged her off to the police car. As he walked away, the rest of the team looked happily as he finally managed to find some peace inside him, taming the rage that had been tearing him apart. They then all went inside the house and began the search.

~~~

Once more, Kaliko was inside the blue room, this time barefoot, in nothing but a nightgown. Steve entered the room and this time, he got no smiles, no show, no questions from her. All he got was a cold look.  
“What am I doing here, commander?”  
Kaliko asked him, holding back the anger. Steve smiled.  
“Remember the first time you were in here Kaliko? I told you we usually don’t go too hard on women, because they are either innocent or lying like a snake with two tongues. The first time, I was pulled from the interrogation before I could crack you, but this time, I can assure you no one will come intervene when I raise my voice. So, do us both a favour and why don’t you tell me why you killed Akela?”  
Kaliko stayed quiet, but looked Steve dead in the eyes.  
“Or don’t say anything. I have all day.”  
“You don’t have the right—”  
She began. Steve cut her off.  
“Actually, I very much do have the right. You know why? Because we have enough to hold you on charges of murder and attempted murder. What do you have to say to that?”  
“I want a lawyer.”  
“That’s a very good idea, Kaliko. How about I go get you one right now?”  
Confused by Steve’s duality, Kaliko frowned. The door opened, and a man carrying a small suitcase came through the door. Kaliko’s eyes softened a little, happy there was at least someone present in the room who was going to defend her.  
“Recognise him, Kaliko?”  
Kaliko shook her head, still confused and wanting nothing more than to get out of this room.  
“You should, it’s the attorney who confirmed your alibi.”  
Her eyes went wide. Steve looked at Victor Fletcher and asked him one, simple question:  
“Can you please confirm to us, Victor, that you received an email stating that someone would help you pay your debts, in exchange for a small favour: you would vouch for miss Keliki’s presence in your office if anyone came to ask about that matter, correct?”  
“Yes, that is correct.”  
“Thank you, Victor. That was all I needed.”  
Victor left the room as quickly as he had walked in.  
“We traced that message back to the inbox of your secretary, who happens to be on maternity leave since a week now. You promised Victor money, in exchange for an alibi.”  
Since Kaliko didn’t answer, Steve kept going.  
“You knew about Makena’s Will, and his plans to sell the company. And when your suspicions were confirmed, you decided to kill Akela, and then Makena, to inherit the company, isn’t that right, Kaliko?”  
The woman suddenly snapped, and threw her head up. She began yelling.  
“That company is mine, mine! I worked every single day of my life to be worthy of it. I went to university for it, I gave up everything else in my life to be a businesswoman. But then Makena inherits it, and he is barely the owner for six months and he wants to sell it behind my back?! I am the rightful owner of that company! I should have been the one to inherit it and to lead it, not my idiot brother!”  
She suddenly shut up, realising she was giving everything away.  
“Oh, don’t let me stop you.”  
Steve said as his grin grew wider. Kaliko seemed determined not to let her tongue slip any further however, so Steve sighed.  
“Okay, let me help you out a little.”  
He gave Kaliko a moment to protest or retaliate, but when she didn’t say anything, began his explanation:  
“You were aware of your brother’s plans to sell the company. You were also aware that he had hired a lawyer to set up his will, in case something went south. You acquired the will, and when you read it, you got angry, because you felt betrayed. But you didn’t react immediately. You wanted to be smart about this, because you wanted to keep the company. You knew you had to get rid of Akela first, because if you had killed Makena before her, she would have owned the company. And if she were to die then, access to the company would have been denied to you since it would have gone to her family members. So, the day of the murder, you send a text to Akela, saying there is something wrong with the yacht, and to meet you there so you can fix it together. You step out of the meeting with your brother, you meet her there and you strangle her, with the help of this scarf.”  
He shows her the scarf, which had been put in an evidence bag.  
“You then try to dump her body in the water, but in you hurry, you don’t pay attention to where you drop her, and she ends up in the lifeboat. You rush off to get back to the meeting before it gets suspicious, and it was like nothing ever happened. You had your alibi secured with your brother and the attorney you bribed, everything was going great. Until we stumble upon Makena’s will, which you thought was something we would miss or simply look over. But guess what we found on your computer at home, Kaliko? A copy of your brother’s will.”  
Steve had completely cracked open the case. Kaliko had nothing to say, she was done for. Steve bent over, so that his face would be very close to Kaliko’s. His eyes were nothing but small slits on his face.  
“There’s just one thing I don’t understand, Kaliko. Why did you blow up the yacht?”  
This time, Steve saw something different in Kaliko’s body language when she spoke. Something that both angered him and worried him. He saw truth.  
“I didn’t blow up that boat.”  
“You are facing charges of murder, Kaliko. But not just any charge, you murdered an officer of the law, and those people always get a special treatment from law enforcement. Why don’t you do both me and yourself a favour, and tell me why you had to kill my partner!”  
Steve was losing his temper again. They had gotten everything right: the alibi, the murderer, the entire case was out and open for everyone to see, but for some reason that spot was still completely dark.  
“I didn’t kill your partner! Fine, I’ll sign whatever paper stating I killed Akela, and God knows she deserves it, and even the attempted murder on my stupid brother, but I had nothing to do with your partner’s death!”  
“His name was Danny!”  
“I don’t care!”  
Steve felt like punching something. Luckily, Chin stepped in at the right time.  
“Steve, we have a confession. Let’s get her out of here.”  
He dragged Steve out of the room and closed the door behind him. Steve was pissed.  
“What are you talking about, Chin? We don’t have a confession. She didn’t admit to killing Danny!”  
“She admitted to killing Akela and trying to kill her brother. Either way, she’s going down.”  
Steve had nothing to say, but he was not happy with this. How could she take credit for attempted murder on her own brother, but not the murder of a police officer? He decided to clear his head and went upstairs, thinking he had seen enough of that viper for one day. He felt that the mood was a little lighter around the office. Danny’s killer had been brought to justice. He could rest in peace now.  
But Steve couldn’t. He couldn’t wipe that unhappy curve that was his mouth off his face. Kono noticed it and went up to him.  
“We got her, boss. It’s over.”  
Steve didn’t answer.  
“Something wrong?”  
Steve was about to answer, when his phone rang. Anonymous caller. He took the call and didn’t even have time to say his name. He nearly dropped the phone on the ground when he heard the simple sentence that came out of the little machine:  
“If you ever want to see your partner alive again, you’re going to do exactly as I say.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Did I have you guys going there?  
> I wasn't going to kill off Danny, of course I wouldn't, what kind of a monster do you guys think I am?  
> Hope you're still enjoying the story.  
> Thanks so much for your comments and your kudos, they really help me!


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